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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 4, p. 410.

4Io THE INDIAN EMPIRE [CHAP. education. In the days of Portuguese ascendancy in the South the Jesuit fathers established a fairly wide system of education. When the scale turned in favour of British rule Protestant missionaries were no less zealous. Although at first opposed by the authorities through fear of native hostility to missionary effort, they established a number of colleges and schools in which many pupils were instructed in the learning of the West, and some of which, such as the Christian College at Madras, the Wilson College at Bombay, and the General Assembly's Institution at Calcutta, remain to the present day among the most important educational institutions of the country. The first English missionary college in India owed its foundation to the Baptists. In r799 Carey and four other missionaries, in order to avoid the opposition of the British authorities, established themselves at Serampore, on the Hooghly, which was at that time a Danish possession. This group of Baptist missionaries rendered themselves illustrious by their literary activity, and in ten years the Bible was trans- lated and printed, in whole or in part, in thirty-one languages. In 8IS8 they founded the Serampore College. The professed object of this institution was conversion, and to this end instruction in the tenets of Christianity was combined with Sanskrit and Arabic literature. In 1820 a college was founded at Calcutta, with funds subscribed in England in honour of Middleton, the first Anglican bishop in India, for the purpose of educating Christian youths to qualify them 'to preach among the heathen.' Another name celebrated in connexion with the early history of education in India is that of Dr. Duff, mission- ary of the Church of Scotland. He landed at Calcutta in I830, and in spite of a host of difficulties succeeded in estab- lishing a seminary for imparting literary, scientific, and religious education through the medium of English. These early missionary efforts had a most important influence in fostering the demand for English education. They taught the natives that English was a profitable acquisition, while the Government learnt the usefulness of English-taught natives in the public service. Contro- But the claim of an English as opposed to an Oriental versy be- education was not established until after a long struggle. Two tween the Anglicists parties arose, both of which favoured the extension of verna- and the cular education; but while the Orientalists desired that it should Oriental- ists. be supplemented by the study of the classical languages of the East, the Anglicists contended that the knowledge and science of the Western world should be thrown open to the