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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 4, p. 409.

XIIl] ED UCA TIOXV 409 respect and do menial service for their maulvi, and custom permitted him to make free use of the cane or to punish delin- quents in any other way his ingenuity might devise. In England, during the early days of the Company's rule, the Early state still left the care of education to private enterprise and history of education 'the pious founder.' The principles which prevailed at home tinder naturally influenced the conduct of the administration in British India, and the Court of Directors did little to supplement the rule. indigenous systems of education existing in their territories. Their efforts were confined to the establishment of colleges for Oriental learning, such as the Calcutta Madrasa for Muhamma- dans founded by Warren Hastings in 1782, and the Benares College for Hindus established in i79i. About this time Mr. Wilberforce and other benevolent persons in England took up the cause of the education of the natives of India, and, after an unsuccessful attempt in 1793 to introduce a measure for the encouragement of missionaries and schoolmasters, succeeded in inserting a clause in the Charter Act of 'IS3 that one lakh of rupees in each year should be 'set apart and applied to the revival and improvement of literature and the encouragement of the learned natives of India, and for the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories in India.' The grant was devoted mainly to the upkeep of the Oriental colleges, the payments of stipends to students, and the publication of works of Oriental literature. But the cause of general education was not without its advo- cates. In 1815 Lord Hastings declared his anxiety to see some system of public instruction established, and the private endeavours of native and English gentlemen and of missionary bodies gave a fresh impetus to educational progress. Potent causes were at work which tended to direct the current of edu- cation into new channels. 'A knowledge of English became a means of livelihood to natives at the centres of government, and a demand arose for English instruction in the Presidency towns. As the old exotic court language, Persian, fell into disuse, and especially when it ceased to be the language of official life, the demand for education in the vernaculars which had superseded the foreign tongue made itself more widely felt. Meanwhile a new influence in favour of popular education was being brought to bear upon the Indian Government by missionary and philanthropic bodies both in this country and in Europe'.' At a very early date Christian missionaries assumed an Early honourable and important position in the history of Indian work. l Report of the Indian Education Commis-ion, 1883.