The name is absent

than weakened their subordinate status.

3. The second half of the century: Anglo-Indian education
in decline

Wood's Education Despatch of July 1854 followed the House
of Commons' Select Committee enquiry into educational
developments in India. (24) This very long document
stressed the importance of the use of English as a medium
of instruction. The Despatch stressed the fact that the
British had no intention of substituting English for an
Indian languages. It summed up the controversy of the
Anglicists and the Orientalists, and focused on the
necessity of establishing Universities in Bombay, Calcutta
and Madras and modelling them on the University of London,
which was then an examining body.

The Despatch rejected the Downward Filtration Theory, the
adoption of modern Indian languages as languages of
instruction in the secondary schools, and the use of
indigenous schools as the foundation of a national system
of education. (25)

Anglo-Indian education qualified for the grants-in-aid
prescribed in Wood's Education Despatch because they
offered a good secular education, agreed to an annual
inspection, had a fee system and possessed a suitable Board
of Management. The building grants, special maintenance
grants and grants-in-aid of boarding charges are still in
existence today. (26)

All previous research has ignored the great disadvantage
the Despatch gave to Anglo-Indian schools: they only
enjoyed the grants-in-aid if they rejected instruction in
a modern Indian language thus cutting off and isolating
Anglo-Indians from mainstream Indian culture.

85

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