Delhi College and Urdu* - MINDS@UW Home

128 • THE ANNUAL OF URDU STUDIESern philosophy. There are several reasons for this that have little or nothingto do with religious prejudice or cultural resistance. The main reasonwas that in Delhi at that time, a knowledge of English was not a requirementfor government service. Even after Persian was disestablished in themid-1830s, Urdu was officially used in the local courts. Knowledge ofPersian remained the mark of a man of culture, Urdu the language ofeveryday discourse and, increasingly, of government and public business.Hence a traditional literary education, plus—to be sure—some personalconnections, were sufficient to gain access to government service. ManyDelhi College students, of whatever religion, were willing to learn tospeak some English, if only as a useful means of communication withtheir rulers. If they pursued literary studies, however, they usually did soin the classical languages of Arabic, Persian, and Sanskrit.The curriculum at the college shows that the distinction betweenoriental and western learning, while maintained organizationally, was lessclear in practice. Indeed, Boutros hoped to make the annual exams comparablein all subjects—except literature—for the students of bothsections of the college. In the oriental madrasa, senior Arabic students ofMaul≥n≥ Maml∑k ‘Alµ were examined on the Dµv≥n of Mutanabbµ, theMaq≥m≥t of ƒarµrµ, and excerpts from Alf Laila (The 1001 Nights), ongrammar and composition, and on their ability to translate Arabic worksinto Urdu (some of which were then published by the TranslationSociety). Students of Persian studying with Maulvµ Im≥m Bakhsh were examinedon the Insh≥’-e Abu ’l-Fa¤l (a manual of correspondence by theMughal historian), the Sikandarn≥ma of Ni ≥mµ (tales of Alexander theGreat), plus grammar, composition, and translation into Urdu. Inhistory, they read the T≥rµkh-r Tµm∑rµ (History of Timur), in geography,the Mir’atu ’l-Aq≥lµm (A Reflection of the Climes), both in Urdu. In law,Sunni students read the Hid≥ya (a digest of ƒanafµ fiqh); and Shi‘as readSharµ‘atu ’l-Isl≥m and Naf√atu ’l-∂m≥n(digests of Shi‘a fiqh). In math, themadrasa students studied the Urdu translation of Brown’s arithmetic, astandard textbook of the day, and in geometry—predictably—Euclid. Inthe Sanskrit classes, an experiment to teach math via the Lilavati (a mathematicalportion of Bhaskara’s Siddhanta Shiromani) did not succeed.Students complained that it was too difficult to learn both Bhaskara’sSanskrit and math simultaneously; the teachers agreed and turned toThe Politics of the Heavens in India” (draft in author’s possession, courtesy ofC.A. Bayly).