ASSAM'S LANGUAGE QUESTION 23 schools and courts.9 Lieutenant-governor Sir George Campbell held that "the vernacular of a people ought not to be elbowed out of a country in favour of another language which happened to be the vernacular of a neighbouring, more numerous and more educated people."1 ® He also observed that the tendency of the Government of India and of the legislation of late years was to permit the vernacular of each province to be used in its courts. He called for reports on languages spoken in different districts of Assam and enquired why Bengali should not be replaced by Assamese. A majority of the deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners, except the deputy commissioners of Goalpara, were in favour of Assamese but Colonel Hopkinson, commissioner of Assam Valley districts for 13 years prior to his retirement in 1984, and another very experienced English officer, A E Campbell, were in favour of retention of Bengali.11 Sir George Campbell, asserted that the vernacular of the province was Assamese and in a resolution dated 19 April 1873, he prescribed the use of Assamese in the courts. It was also decided that in all primary schools, Assamese will be taught to the exclusion of Bengali; also in all middle schools and in the lower and middle classes of higher schools. When a class of 12 or more boys wish for it, Bengali may be separately taught to them as a language. In the upper class of higher schools) every subject in which there is an Assamese book is to be taught in Assamese; subjects in which Assamese school-books do not exist can be taught either in Bengali or in English. Textbook Hurdle He also admitted that the real difficulty in recognizing Assamese was the paucity of Assamese books.12 By this order, clearly, Bengali as a medium of instruction in the lower classes of all types of schools was discarded and teaching of Bengali was allowed only as an exception rather than the rule, and in higher classes Bengali could be replaced only if books in Assamese were available. The absence of Assamese text books, however, presented an insurmountable obstacle to the operation of this order and the next year C A Martin, inspector of schools, lamented: "the Assamese language has no literature of its own deserving the name so that at present the effect of this order is to bring education in the valley districts of the Province more or less to a standstill .. .means should be devised to guard against the existing schools falling into a rapid decline.9'18 He also pointed out that boys who went to the high schools had to take Bengali because Sanskrit, the alternative subject, could be taught only to a specific number of students and that number was hardly ever there. As regards Goalpara, he advocated a dichotomy of policy as he asserted that the people had expressed their choice in favour of Bengali. As regards middle schools, higher classes of high schools and normal schools, he suggested the retention of Bengali, "for in these classes the most difficult subjects will be taught and the more difficult the subjects, the more nearly must language