Exhibition to commemorate 150 years of Presidency Universities

New Delhi, Jan 8 (UNI) The National Archives will organise an exhibition to commemorate the 150 years of the establishment of three Presidency College at Calcutta, Bombay and Madras in 1857, the first seats of higher learning under the colonial regime.

The exhibition, an archival exposition to recapitulate history of the three Universities (1857-2007), will be inaugurated on January 10 by Dr. Bhalchandra Mungekar, Member, Planning Commission.

Mr Badal K. Das, Secretary, Culture Ministry, will preside over the inaugural function. The exhibition will remain open till January 31.

The year 1857 was a year of contrasts in the annals of Indian history. It was marked by catacyclismic political upheaval on the one hand, and on the other, it ushered in a new epoch in the history of higher education by the setting up of the three Presidency Universities.

Individual patronage by Indophiles for the cause of higher education in India can be seen through the establishment of educational institutions like the Calcutta Madarsa (1781) and the Benaras Hindu College (1792).

The Charter Act of 1813 allocated an amount of Rs one lakh towards educational development. Thereafter, a debate sparked off between the advocates of western learning (Occidentalists) and the supporters of oriental learning (Orientalists), which was finally resolved by Lord T.B. Macaulay's Minute of 1835.

This led to a thorough Anglicisation of the lower echelons of administration. Two decades later, British administrators realised the need for establishing centres of higher education to effectively produce superior native subordinates in the highly skilled areas of medicine, law, engineering and liberal arts.

Sir Charles Wood, President, Board of Control, sought to create a properly articulated scheme covering all stages of educational development through the educational Despatch of 1854, which is also considered as the Magna Carta of English education in India.

As a result, three Universities were established at the Presidency towns of Calcutta, Bombay and Madras in 1857 on the pattern of the London University.

The affairs of the universities were to be managed by the Fellows, who were mostly high government officials. All three universities had, at first, four faculties -- Arts-cum-Science, Law, Medicine and Engineering. Later on, Universities were also established in Punjab in Lahore (1882) and Allahabad (1887).

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