The Library Magazine of Select Foreign Literature: All volumesVarious
History
The Library Magazine of Select Foreign Literature: All volumes
Various
Periodicals
If the views which have been now put forward are at all sound, we may
perhaps conclude that whilst our Indian empire requires on the part of its
rulers the utmost watchfulness to guard against dangers and contingencies
which may at any moment arise, yet that with ordinarily wise government we
may look forward to a period of indefinitely long duration during which
British dominion may flourish. That sooner or later the links which
connect England with India will be severed, all history teaches us to
expect; but when that severance occurs, if the growing spirit of
philantrophy and increasing sense of national morality which characterise
the nineteenth century continue, we may fairly hope that the Englishman
will have taught the Hindus how to govern themselves. It is England's
task, as heretofore, "to teach other nations how to live." A very long
period, however, is required before the lesson can be fully learned, and
the holders of Indian securities need not fear that the reversionary
interests of their grandchildren will be endangered. Our rule in India
dates back little more than a century; and although from the first a wise
spirit of toleration and an eminent desire to do justice have prevailed,
it is only within the last thirty or forty years that any serious attempts
to elevate the character of the nation have been manifested.
The educational movement, which is silently producing prodigious changes
in India, received its first impulse from England, and the clause in the
Act of Parliament[11] which recognised the duty of educating the masses,
enabled men like Lord Macaulay, Sir Edward Ryan, and others, to lay the
foundations of a system which has since established itself far and wide.
But the Court of Directors never took heartily to this great innovation of
modern times, and it was only under the direction of English statesmanship
that the Indian authorities were induced to act with vigour in this
momentous undertaking. Sir Charles Wood's celebrated minute on education,
in 1858, laid the foundation of a national system of education, and the
principles then inculcated have never since been departed from. Some
generations will require to pass before the Oriental mind is enabled to
substitute the accurate forms of European thought for the loose
speculations that have prevailed through long centuries. But already happy
results are appearing, and in connection with the subject of this article
it may be noticed as a most hopeful sign of the future that our English
schools are turning out native statesmen by whom all our best methods of
government are being introduced into the dominions of native princes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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