As the introduction of vernacular education with its emphasis on female education was to give such a powerful stimulus to Hindi and Urdu prose compositions, both fictional and non-fictional, it would be useful to begin this analysis by giving a brief account of it here.
Vernacular education5 in Hindi and Urdu at a lower level was introduced in the Hindi-Urdu region as a compromise with the backwardness of the area in its contact with the West.6 It was aimed at illiterate masses whose backward circumstances did not permit them to receive education through the medium of English.7 English was the medium of instruction of higher education. The objective of both the English and the vernacular education was to inculcate European knowledge into the Indian mind. To put into effect the policy of vernacular education, the administration of the educational institutions in the North Western Provinces was handed over from the Government of Bengal to the Local Government by a resolution of the Supreme Government dated 29th April, 1840.8 From this time onward, tentative steps began to be taken to promote the spread of vernacular education. The Education Despatch of 1854 with its wide ranging proposals consolidated and expanded the vernacular education programme.9 Prior to the Education Despatch of 1854 and following it, hundreds of Hindi prose texts on modern European knowledge were prepared under the patronage of the Government for distribution to the schools 10 To this body of text-books, missionaries and various school book societies, such as the School Book Society of Calcutta (1817), the School Book Society of Agra (1837), also contributed their share." This corpus of text-books containing modern knowledge, which at higher levels was being disseminated through the medium of English, was
50n the history and development of vernacular education, see extracts from original documents in H. Sharp and J.A Richey, Selections from Educational Recordset I, 1781-1839; Pt II, 1840-1859, Calcutta 1920, 1922, educational reports in Prem Knpal, ed.. Selections from Educational Reports of the Government of India, Vol. I, Educahonal Reports, 1859-1871, Delhi, 1960; for a general survey of the development of education in this period, see Syed Nurullah and J.P. Naik. A History of Education in India during the British period, 2nd ed, London, 1951. On the contribution of vernacular education to the development of Hindi prose, see Laksmisagar Varsney, Adhunik hindi sahiya ki bhumika, 1952, pp. 425ff., Shardadevi Vedalankar, The development of Hindi prose literature in the early nineteenth century, Allahabad, 1969, pp
6] A.Richey, Selections from Educational Records, Pt II, pp 228-229 "Ibid, pp. 367-368 "Ibid., p 228 'Ibid., pp 364-393
^For a list of such text-books, see Shardadevi Vedalankar, The development of Hindi prose literature in the early nineteenth century. Appendix III, pp. 236-244, the India Office and the British Museum catalogues of Hindi books
"See Laksmisagar Varsney, Adhunik hindi sahitya ki bhumika, pp. 449ff., Shardadevi Vedalankar, The development of Hindi prose literature in the early nineteenth century, pp 77ff, 128 ft
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