Chandni Chowk by Swapna Liddle

Author:Swapna Liddle [Liddle, Swapna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9788193307359
Publisher: Speaking Tiger Books LLP
Published: 2017-01-06T08:00:00+00:00

Soldiers of Skinner’s Horse regiment. A drawing by John Luard, published in 1838.

The cultural concerns of the majority of the educated elite of Shahjahanabad were very different from those of the Skinners. In the early nineteenth century, there were a number of traditional institutions of higher learning, madrasas, some of which, such as that run by Shah Abdul Aziz and his brothers, were of a high standard. The children of the elite, to begin with, usually received an education at home, from an ustani, a lady employed for the purpose. As they advanced further, boys then graduated to a maktab, a more regular primary school, though, in well-off families, teachers were often employed to come to the home. Further education took place at a madrasa, or from other scholars, who were not teachers per se, but were experts in their own fields. It was a tradition that the learned, whatever their full-time occupations, often made it a point to teach students in their spare time. These men would also frequently extend financial help to needy students. In fact, those without means and without connections had a good chance of acquiring a reasonable education if they were determined. We know of several young men who came to Delhi penniless and went on to receive a good education. These included the poet Altaf Husain ‘Hali’ and the novelist Nazir Ahmad.146

By 1825, students from Delhi, or those coming from surrounding areas looking for an education, had an alternative to the older institutions. This was an institution set up by the government—the Delhi College. This was housed in a pre-existing educational establishment—the madrasa of Ghaziuddin Khan, just outside Ajmeri Gate. The aim was that the major part of the curriculum should consist of the study of geography, arithmetic, history, mathematics, mechanics, the use of globes, astronomy, chemistry and other subjects. The medium of instruction obviously had to be one that the pupils readily understood. To this end, it was initially proposed that translations be made in simple Persian from suitable texts, though soon came the realization that Urdu, which was much more widely understood, would be a better choice. The process of translation was slow to take off, and there was a lack of books from which to teach Western sciences. Initially therefore it was the ‘oriental’ subjects that were primarily taught—for instance, Islamic law. The few areas in which Western ideas were introduced included geography, geometry and the Copernican system of astronomy—at the core of which was the belief that the sun was the centre of the universe.147

As regards language, the students learnt either Persian, Arabic or Sanskrit, in that order of popularity. The ultimate aim, however, at least according to the majority official opinion, was to be the introduction of English. In early 1827, Charles Metcalfe, the Resident, declared that the institution of an English professorship would ‘be more valuable than all the other arrangements of that institution’, and that a familiarity with English would truly open up the stores of European literature and science to the students.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.