Alexander Duff and English education in Bengal

The choice between Vernacular or English as the medium of instruction was not too far agoa point of major contention for the government in Bengal, a state, like many others within the nation, which have experimented with myriad permutations and combinations to achieve the right mix of the oriental and the occidental. English, as the quintessential link language in a linguistically convoluted space, survived for the moment as the mobility it offers continues to be the primary criterion for its retention. It is in this context that a reading of Alexander Duff and his contribution to western education in Bengal and Calcutta, in particular, is still of some relevance.

Alexander Duff, a representative of the Scottish Mission and a recognized orator in the General Assembly of Scotland reached Calcutta on 27^th May 1830 with the directive of setting up a branch of the Church of Scotland in India that would reach out to rural Bengal. The times were amenable to such evangelical endeavours as grounds had been prepared by the activities of the Church Missionary Society, Baptist Missionary Society and the London Missionary Society in Bengal.Duff however chose to base his activities in the city of Calcutta instead of rural Bengal as it offered him the scope and expanse to preach his religious and educational ideas. He believed the strong presence of western educated population in Calcutta was more favourable to the spread of Christianity than the rural backwaters. By mid19^th century much headway had been made as Christianity found legitimacy in Bengal through English education and the missionary schools and colleges hoped that the spread of English education would make the Indians more accepting of Christian faith. Duff’s efforts added weightage to the advances made in the field of English education spearheaded principally by the Serampore Missionaries.

Duff’s contribution to the educational heritage of Calcutta and Bengal remains significant as despite donning a missionary robe, he was principally an educationist who harped on the need to develop not multiple schools for Christian ecclesiastical purposes but on establishing and developing one school. This was a major shift from the missionary policy ofestablishing a number of English medium schools that in due course became defunct.Technically Duff might not be considered a pioneer as the missionaries by 1830 had already become aware of the two-fold need of training Indian teachers and missionaries who could teach in English medium schools as also of the necessity of combining Christian teaching with secular subjects thus awakening the intellectual potential of the students. However unlike other missionary educators of his times whose engagement with education wavered, Duff approached the question of education with an infectious enthusiasm, skill and vision that reaped unprecedented results, so much so that henceforth the question of education became a central concern for all missionaries working in India. In establishing the value of education as a corner stone of missionary teaching therefore, Duff did set a precedent.

Duff was fortunate that his arrival in Calcutta in 1830 coincided with a growing intellectual ferment in Bengal which was largely tilted towards English education and apart from government officials and missionaries, leading Indian educationists like Raja Rammohan Roy took genuine interest in English education and British culture as ways of salvation from “medieval” backwardness as also a requisite passport for employment in private firms and government service. The English missionaries had hitherto used the vernacular as the medium in their schools, while the Serampore Baptists had initially emphasized on Sanskrit education in the college they had founded in 1818. But by end 1820s they had woken up to the supreme potential of English language. The shift in colonial policies largely shaped this attitudinal change as the Raj in 1835 took momentous steps in devoting funds to English education instead of on traditional vernacular medium schools. Duff’s engagement and his visions and policies thus need to be contextualized against this wider backdrop though he seldom swam with the tide.

His influence however did not remain confined within the four walls of educational institutes as Wood’s Dispatch (1854)–considered as the magna carta of English education in colonial India was much inspired by Duff’s policies. Among the proposals for which he argued and which were adopted,significant was the principle of grants-in-aid by government for those  schools which the government inspectors would certify to be providing good education. This education was to be essentially in Western learning, through the medium of English as well as in the vernaculars as gradually Duff had learnt to appreciate the value of vernacular elementary knowledge for the people of India. Though he could not implement the principle of religious instruction as an inalienable part of school education as he conceded the principle of government neutrality in education, he did propose voluntary Bible classes for government schools and colleges. This measure the government feared would tarnish the principle of educational neutrality and thereby refused to consider this suggestion of Duff. On the need to establish universities however, his views were in accord with the government’s, and with the establishment of the University of Calcutta in 1857, Duff continued to play a prominent role in its development till his final departure from India in 1863. Modern day educational lineage of Bengal thus owes a lot to Alexander Duff and his visionary interventions.

Priscilla Namrata Rozario

Adjunct Researcher

Asia in Global Affairs.