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122 • THE ANNUAL OF URDU STUDIESlar clause in the revised charter also brought to a head the debate betweenOrientalists and Anglicists within the British Indian administration, for itcalled not only for the “revival and improvement of literature[presumably oriental] and the encouragement of the learned natives ofIndia,” but also for “the introduction and promotion of a knowledge ofthe sciences [presumably western] among the inhabitants of the Britishterritories in India.” 10 This provision in the law remained a dead letteruntil the 1820s, when a revenue surplus actually materialized, and whenthe General Committee of Public Instruction [GCPI] was established inCalcutta, followed by local committees in urban centers around India,including Delhi.The Delhi Committee of Public Instruction, which included bothBritish officials and local notables, investigated the state of learning in theMughal capital in the early 1820s and reported that there were a numberof madrasas and many smaller schools in the city, but that many of themwere in a state of serious decline. 11 Among them was the Madrasa ofGh≥zµu ’d-Dµn Kh≥n, built in the early eighteenth century just outsideDelhi’s Ajmeri Gate. The Madrasa was a handsome late Mughal edifice,in the familiar red sandstone of Shahjahanabad, consisting of a mosqueand a two-storied arcade that contained rooms for the teachers and studentsand enclosed a courtyard, entered by a massive gateway. Adjacent tothe mosque was the marble tomb of the founder, Gh≥zµu ’d-Dµn Kh≥nFµråz Jag, a nobleman who had served the Mughal emperor Aurangzebin the Deccan and who was the father of the man who became the firstNizam of Hyderabad. In his will, Gh≥zµu ’d-Dµn Kh≥n had established avaqf for the support of the madrasa. Like many such endowments, itprovided stipends not only for the teachers but also the students. 12By the early nineteenth century, the income from the original vaqf ofGh≥zµu ’d-Dµn Kh≥n had declined, as had the student body, and themadrasa was in disrepair. 13 About this time, the Delhi Committee ofPublic Instruction took an interest in this institution. In the mid-1820s,10 H. Sharp, ed., Selections from Educational Records, Pt. I (1920; rpt. NewDelhi: National Archives of India, 1965), p. 22.11 Board Collections [BC], #s 25694–25695, 1826–27, Vol. 909, pp. 487–91,540–53, 565. India Office Library & Records [IOLR].12 J.H. Richey, ed., Selections from Educational Records, Pt. II (1922; rpt. NewDelhi: National Archives of India, 1965), pp. 252–3.13 BC, #s 25694–95, 1826–27, Vol. 909, p. 565 ff. IOLR.
GAIL MINAULT • 123they obtained a grant from the general education fund for the support oforiental learning at the madrasa. In 1827, the government sanctioned anadditional sum, supplemented by funds raised locally, to start Englishclasses and teach astronomy and mathematics “on European principles” atthe school. About this time, the Madrasa of Gh≥zµu ’d-Dµn Kh≥n began tobe called Delhi College, with an oriental section (the madrasa), whereArabic and Persian grammar, literature, and other Islamic subjects (‘ul∑m)were taught, and an anglo-vernacular section (or institution), wherewestern subjects were taught. In both sections, the medium of instructionwas Urdu. 14Then in 1828 or 1829, Nav≥b I‘tim≥du ’d-Daula, a minister at the courtof Awadh, established a new vaqf, specifying that the income from theendowment should go to the support of oriental learning in his nativecity, Delhi. He asked the East India Company to administer this endowment,indicating that—less than a decade before the Anglicize triumphalismof Macaulay’s famous Minute on Education—North Indian notablesfelt no cultural threat from the British administration’s educationalpolicies. The GCPI thanked the Nav≥b for his “munificent donation” andsuggested that—rather than found another institution—the income fromhis endowment could best be spent supporting the existing Delhimadrasa. The local committee in Delhi applied the funds from theNav≥b’s vaqf to the account of the oriental section of Delhi College, andreassigned part of the government funds to the anglo-vernacular sectionof the college. 15By the mid-1830s, power on the GCPI in Calcutta had shifteddefinitively in favor of the Anglicists, leading to Macaulay’s Minute withits famous line about the formation of “a class of persons, Indian in bloodand color, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect”that has been quoted ever since. He firmly rejected further support fororiental education, and opined that, even at those oriental institutionsthat survived the government’s change in policy, stipends to studentsshould cease. 16In Delhi, the new policies emanating from Calcutta resulted in thecancellation of a number of student stipends. What’s more, the Principal14 MDK, pp. 22–23, 32–33; Sharp, pp. 188–9.15 Home (Pub) file # 8–14 & KW (15 July 1840), National Archives of India[NAI].16 Sharp, p. 116.
Page 3: GAIL MINAULT • 121on printed text
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Page 13 and 14: GAIL MINAULT • 131received favora
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