Education was a crucial transfer point within modern imperial projects; it was a key domain through which relationships between the state, religious institutions, various agents of reform, and Indigenous, colonised and enslaved peoples were negotiated. Exploring a range of case studies, this article highlights the multiple trajectories of colonial…

In India, the history of education has traversed a unique path in the last hundred years. The political influences guided the discipline, but at the same time, they were also contested and critiqued in equal measures. History of education as a discipline went through four distinct phases. The first phase coincided with the last stage of the…

The paper explores the historical significance of Hindu College Calcutta, a key institution in colonial India's intellectual discourse. Established in the early 19th century, the college faced numerous challenges, including opposition from conservative factions and financial constraints, as it evolved into a hub for education and independent…

Agricultural improvement was a vital aspect of the 'development scheme' of the British Government in India as agriculture was the most revenue-generating industry in Bihar. From the first Famine Commission Report of 1880, there was a set agenda to improve agriculture through education. This was to be achieved through importing western science and…

Indian students in Britain before the Second World War were a sizeable social group who exerted noticeable influence on Indian nationalism and on British institutions and society. The politics of race and empire were mediated through British schools and universities in this period with consequences for Indian students, and their peers. This…

In light of the focus placed on English education by the colonial government, and the petition signed by 70,000 local inhabitants of the Madras Presidency, Lord John Elphinstone, the Governor, made efforts to disseminate English education during his governorship (1837-1842). Spurred on by the petition, Elphinstone wrote two fundamental educational…

A geophysical perception of the ecumene had always existed in the consciousness of Indians even in precolonial days. But with the advent of the British, and with the establishment of territorial mapping and institutionalised education, there was a growing awareness of differences and similarities related to ethnicity, race and space. Colonial…

After independence India's leaders committed the country to democracy with universal franchise and to pursuing a socialistic pattern of society. As part of these interlocking projects, it was widely recognised that India's educational systems needed reform. However, with scarce resources, Indian policy-makers faced the dilemma of whether to…

This article explores two attempts to envisage a new global world, one created by the West, and to create new colonial subjects. One of these attempts was in Sierra Leone in the 1790s, the other in India in the 1830s. The two case studies are seen through the lens of a father and son, Zachary and Thomas Babington Macaulay, each a representative…

This article examines international communication around moral education in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the role of the ethical movement in facilitating this communication. Three moments of international communication are analysed. The first, in the 1890s, involves the dissemination of Felix Adler's book "The Moral…

Colonial education has been controversial and widely divergent interpretations have been offered from contrasting ideological perspectives. British imperial education policy was highly contended during the colonial era and remains a contentious issue amongst many contemporary historians and a critical review of the historiography of the subject is…

This article discusses the project of tribal education in the British colonial state in the mid-nineteenth century and the shape into which it developed in Chhotanagpur, an obscure area of east India under the Presidency of Bengal. Known as the "Ruhr of India", it is now the southern part of the State of Jharkhand. Up to the 1840s there…

Focuses on the dominant Anglican missionary schools in Punjab (India). States that the Anglican missions failed to fulfill their original design, but that Hindu schools were successful and played a role in India's movement for independence over British settlements in the northern region. (KDR)

Discusses the debate on gender and imperialism in India by examining the case of Mary Carpenter, a nineteenth century English educationist and social reformer, in order to provide more information on the debate. Addresses where Carpenter stood in the discourse on imperialism. (CMK)

Focuses on the history of women's education in western India during the nineteenth century addressing the issues of home education versus school education, gender construction and the school curriculum, and nationalism and women's education. Discusses a woman's position as a point of conflict between the patriarchal family structure and women's…