ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS :
I. Answer the following questions in one sentence each :
1. What position was William Jones appointed as ?
Ans: William Jones was appointed as a junior judge at the Supreme Court that the company had set up .
2. What was established to encourage the study of ancient Sanskrit and Arabic ?
Ans: A Madrasa was set up in Calcutta in 1781 to promote the study of Arabic,Persian and Islamic law and the Hindu college was established in Banaras in 1791 to encourage the study of ancient Sanskrit texts that would be useful for the administration of the country .
3. Who sent on educational dispatch to the Governor General in India in 1854 ?
Ans: In 1854, the court of Directors of the East India Company in London sent an educational dispatch to the Governor General in India .
4. How could vernacular education be improved ?
Ans: This could be done by introducing orders within the system, imposing routines ,establishing rules, ensuring regular inspections .
5. What was Rabindranath Tagore’s opinion regarding school ?
Ans: i) Rabindranath hated going to school when he was a child.He found it suffocating and oppressive .
ii) The school appeared like a prison, for he could never do what he felt like doing .
6. What did Macaulay urge the British government in India to stop ?
Ans: Macaulay urged the British government in India to stop wasting public resources in promoting oriental learning .
7. Who rose in revolt in Delhi in 1857 ?
Ans: The sepoys rose in revolt in Delhi in 1857 .
8. Name the universities established in India in 1857 .
Ans: Bombay University,Calcutta University and Madras University were established .
9. Name the two thinkers who reacted against western education .
Ans: Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore were the two Indian thinkers .
10. What was the education system in pathshala’s ?
Ans: The education system in pathshala’s was flexible .
II. Answer the following questions in three sentences :
1. Write about William Jones .
Ans: i) In 1783, a person named William Jones arrived in Calcutta .
ii) He had an appointment as a junior judge at the Supreme Court that the company had set up .
iii) In addition to being an expert in law, Jones was a linguist .
iv) He had studied Greek and Latin at oxford, knew French and English. He also learnt Arabic and Persian .
v) He also learnt Sanskrit language, also ancient Indian text on law, philosophy, religion, politics, morality, arithmetic, medicine and the other sciences .
2. What interests did William Jones, Henry Thomas Cole Brooke have towards India ?
Ans: i) They shared a deep respect for ancient cultures, of India and the west .
ii) Indian civilization that had attained its glory in the ancient past, but had subsequently declined .
iii) In order to understand India it was necessary to discover the sacred and legal texts that were produced in the ancient period .
iv) The texts could reveal the real ideas and laws of the Hindus and Muslims, and only a new study of these texts could form the basis of future development in India .
3. What was the opinion of the company officials regarding the promotion of learning
Ans: i) Many company officials argued that the Britain ought to promote Indian rather than western learning .
ii) They felt that institutions should set be up to encourage the study of ancient Indian texts and teach Sanskrit and Persian literature and poetry .
iii) The officials also thought that Hindus and Muslims ought to be taught what they were already familiar with and what they valued and treasured, not subjects that were alien to them .
4. Why did British officials began to criticize the orientalist ?
Ans: i) They said that knowledge of the east was full of errors and unscientific thought, Eastern literature. Literature was non serious and light -hearted .
ii) So they argued that it was wrong on the part of the British to spend so much effort in encouraging the study of Arabic and Sanskrit language and literature .
5. Why were institutions like the Calcutta , Madrasa and Benaras Sanskrit College seen in darkness ?
Ans: i) Following Macaulay’s minute, the English Education Act of 1835 was introduced .
ii) The decision was to make English the medium of instruction for higher education, and to stop the promotion of oriental institutions like the Calcutta, Madrasa and Benaras Sanskrit College .
iii) This institutions were seen as “temples of darkness that were falling of themselves into decay” .
iv) English textbooks now began to be produced for schools .
6. Why was European learning economic ?
Ans: i) European learning would enable Indians to recognize the advantages that flow from the expansion of trade and commerce, and enable them in developing resources of the country.
ii) European ways of life would change their tastes and desires, and create a demand for British goods .
7. How would European learning enable to improve the moral character of Indians ?
Ans: i) It would make them truthful and honest, and thus supply the company with civil servants who could be trusted and depended upon .
ii) They said that the literature of the east was not only full of grave errors, it could also not instill in people a sense of duty and a commitment to work, nor could it develop the skills required for administration .
8. What was the report of William Adam on vernacular schools ?
Ans: i) In the 1930’s, William Adam a Scottish mested through a system of annual examination .
ii) Pathshala’s which accepted the new rules were supported through government grants .
9. What was the opinion of thinkers with regard to Education from 19th century ?
Ans: i) The thinkers began to talk of the need for a wider spread of education .
ii) They were impressed with the development in Europe and felt that western education would help to modernize India .
iii) They urged the British to open more schools, colleges and universities .
III. Answer the following questions in four sentences :
1. Jones discovered that his interests were shared by many British officials . Explain ?
Ans: Jones discovered that his interests were shared by many British officials living in Calcutta at the time. Englishmen like Henry Thomas Cole Brooke and Nathaniel Halhed were also busy discovering the ancient Indian heritage, mastering Indian languages and translating Sanskrit and Persian works into English. Jones set up the Asiatic society of Bengal, and started a journal called Asiatic researches .
2. How would British become the guardians of Indian culture as well as its masters ?
Ans: i) Jones and Colehrooke went about discovering ancient texts, understanding their meaning, translating them, and making their findings known to others .
ii) This project was helpful to Britishers to learn Indian culture but also to Indians to rediscover heritage, and understand the lost glories of their past . In this process the British became the guardians of Indian culture as well as its masters .
3. What was the opinion of James Mill regarding education ?
Ans: i) According to him, the British should not teach what the natives wanted or what they respected in order to please them and ‘win a place in their heart’ .
ii) The aim of education ought to be to teach what was useful and practical .
iii) So the Indians should be made familiar with the scientific and technical advances that the west had mad rather than with the poetry and sacred literature of the orient .
4. What was the opinion of Thomas Macaulay in Education ?
Ans: i) Macaulay saw that India as an uncivilized country that needed to be civilized . No branch of eastern knowledge, according to him could be compared to what England had produced .
ii) He urged that the British government in India stop wasting public money in promoting oriental learning for it was of no practical use .
5. Why did Macaulay teach English language ?
Ans: i) Macaulay emphasized on the need to teach English language . He felt that knowledge of English would allow all Indians to read some of the finest literature the world had produced ; it would make them aware of the developments in western science and philosophy .
ii) Teaching of English could thus be a way of civilizing people, changing their tastes, values and culture .
6. How was the system of pathshala’s flexible in nature ?
Ans: i) There were no fixed fee, no printed books, no separate school building, no benches or chairs, no blackboards, no system of separate classes, no roll call registers, no annual examinations, and no regular time-table .
ii) In some places classes were held under a banyan tree, in other places in the corner of a village shop or temple, or at the gurus home .
iii) Fee depended on the income of parents; the rich had to pay more than the poor .
iv) Teaching was oral and the gurus decided what to teach .
7. What was the opinion of Mahatma Gandhi regarding English education system in India ?
Ans: i) Mahatma Gandhi argued that colonial education created a sense of inferiority in the minds of Indians .
ii) It made them see western civilization as superior, and destroyed the pride they had in their own culture .
iii) Mahatma Gandhi wanted an education that could help Indians recover their sense of dignity and self-respect .
iv) There was poison in this education, said Mahatma Gandhi, it was sinful, it enslaved Indians, and it cast an evil spell on them .
8. What type of education Gandhiji wanted to see in India ?
Ans: i) Mahatma Gandhi strongly felt that Indian languages ought to be the medium of teaching. Education in English crippled Indians, distanced them from their own social surroundings, and made them ‘strangers in their own lands’.
ii) Mahatma Gandhi said western education focused on reading and writing rather than oral knowledge.
iii) He said people have to work with their hands, learn a craft and know how different things operated .
9. What type of school did Tagore want to set up ?
Ans: i) Tagore wanted to set up a school where the child was happy, where she could be free and creative where he was able to explore her own thoughts and desires .
ii) Tagore felt that childhood ought to be a time of self-financing .
iii) Teachers had to be imaginative, understand the child and help the child to be creative and destroyed his sense of wonder .