Which of the following led to the introduction of English Education in India?
- 1.Charter Act of 1813
- 2.General Committee of Public Instruction, 1823
- 3.Orientalist and Anglicist Controversy
Select the correct answer using the code given below:
Answer & explanation
Answer: (d) 1, 2 and 3
All three were links in one chain. The Charter Act of 1813 first set aside public money for Indian education, the General Committee of Public Instruction (1823) was set up to spend it, and the Orientalist-Anglicist controversy inside that committee ended with Macaulay's Minute (1835) and the English Education Act, which made English the medium of higher education.
- ✓ 1. When the Company's charter was renewed in 1813, a clause required the governor-general to spend not less than 100,000 rupees a year on the education of Indians. This created the funds and the official responsibility for education.
- ✓ 2. The General Committee of Public Instruction, formed in Calcutta in 1823, disbursed the grant. Younger members on it later argued for spreading Western knowledge through English, which led to the controversy.
- ✓ 3. The dispute over funding Oriental learning or Western knowledge was settled for the Anglicists by Macaulay's Minute of 1835, followed by the English Education Act of 1835.
Remember · Route to English education: Charter Act 1813 (Rs 1 lakh grant), General Committee of Public Instruction 1823, Orientalist-Anglicist debate, Macaulay's Minute and English Education Act 1835.
📘 Read it in NCERT: Class 8 Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 1), Ch 4 (practise this chapter)
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica: Education, spread of Western educational practices to Asian countries ↗ · reference work “It was only in 1813, when the company’s charter was renewed, that a clause was inserted requiring the governor-general to devote not less than 100,000 rupees annually to the education of Indians. … A General Committee of Public Instruction, constituted in Calcutta (Kolkata) in 1823, started its work with an Orientalist policy rather than a Western-oriented one, since the majority of the members were Orientalists. … The controversy between the Orientalists and the Anglicists was decided in favour of the latter by the famous Minute on Education of 1835”
- NCERT Class 8 · Exploring Society: India and Beyond (Part 1), Chapter 4 “Although a few prominent British Orientalists argued that Indian students should be left to study in their own languages, Macaulay’s policy gained the upper hand”
Question and answer: UPSC's official GS Paper I (2018, Series A) — paper ↗ · answer key ↗. Explanation: Minimalist IAS, checked 1 Oct 2026 (how we verify). ·