British Education in India: Being the ‘LE BAS’ Prize Essay for 1890.
Dublin Core
Title
British Education in India: Being the ‘LE BAS’ Prize Essay for 1890.
Creator
Frederick William Thomas
Date
1891
Description
In the Lamplighter Mrs. Sullivan, Willie’s mother, takes a dream excursion to India. In her dreams she imagines she is journeying over “land and sea” to Calcutta “ a beautiful city, with churches , towers, thongs of gay people moving in every direction”. Mrs. Sullivan has the idea that India is civilized and a metropolis full of culture. The words “city” and “civilized”, used by Cummin’s, gives the reader the idea that Mrs. Sullivan dream trek of the British India Empire is civilized and Christianized.
In this essay, the dominance of Britain over India is explained in terms of Britain’s influence over India’s culture. The essay tracks the culture of India’s religion and how the culture of education (specifically in one passage, the sciences) was brought to India. Essay’s like this were read by people in European countries and America- so woman like Mrs. Sullivan would have read these and imagines India as this hub of cultural diffusion and a place where great intellect was established, thanks to “civilized” Europeans taking over India for the British Empire. The essay describes many aspects that Britain introduced to India; page 137 states that “the principal still openly proclaimed and defended that it is the business of the English to create a highly educated class’; who will then transmit their culture to the lower strata of society”. Page 8 also states that English men “Such men who in that wonderful land were the visible representatives of culture, religion, and all the higher forces of men.
Britain was seen as the high place of intellect, so for Britain to ‘invade’ India would imply that their education and intellect has spread through the culture of India, making India cultured and civilized
In this essay, the dominance of Britain over India is explained in terms of Britain’s influence over India’s culture. The essay tracks the culture of India’s religion and how the culture of education (specifically in one passage, the sciences) was brought to India. Essay’s like this were read by people in European countries and America- so woman like Mrs. Sullivan would have read these and imagines India as this hub of cultural diffusion and a place where great intellect was established, thanks to “civilized” Europeans taking over India for the British Empire. The essay describes many aspects that Britain introduced to India; page 137 states that “the principal still openly proclaimed and defended that it is the business of the English to create a highly educated class’; who will then transmit their culture to the lower strata of society”. Page 8 also states that English men “Such men who in that wonderful land were the visible representatives of culture, religion, and all the higher forces of men.
Britain was seen as the high place of intellect, so for Britain to ‘invade’ India would imply that their education and intellect has spread through the culture of India, making India cultured and civilized
Contributor
Brooke Angel
Source*
Thomas, Frederick William. British Education in India: Being the ‘LE BAS’ Prize Essay for 1890.University Press, Cambridge. 1891. Web. http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=NhQCtgChlR0C&oi=fnd&pg=PA1&dq=British+India+%22culture%22&ots=aw_wlJIRyM&sig=s8YgeW2wMvBQCL2wVtvKw5MEeHs#v=onepage&q&f=false
Rights
Original document is out of copyright (it was published before 1923). Every effort has been made to comply with the provisions of any licensing agreements associated with digitization of the original document. For further information, please see the “about” page.
Language
English
Publisher
University Press of Cambridge
Coverage
The Culture of India, which includes Calcutta, the location in which Willie was sent too
Format
Essay
Identifier
English Culture
Files
Citation
Frederick William Thomas, “British Education in India: Being the ‘LE BAS’ Prize Essay for 1890.,” American Women's Bestsellers -- Spring 2015, accessed May 18, 2024, https://202s15.cesaunders.net/items/show/58.