Page:A History of the Brahmo Samaj.djvu/28

CHAPTER I 5 were seminaries of Sanskrit learning at Nadia and other places, but the knowledge of Vedic literature was unknown to them, and they confined themselves chiefly to teaching a few elementary branches of grammar, rhetoric, belles-lettres, law and logic.

The blessings of a good English education, which have produced such marvellous results in subse- quent times, were unknown. The necessities of the new struggle for existence pressing upon men had taught them that a partial knowledge of the English language was essential for their worldly prospects. Accordingly, there was at that time, an ever-increasing demand for English education j but it formed no part of the policy of the Indian Government to impart to the people such educa- tion. The lakh of rupees set apart by the Directors of the East India Company in 1813 for the encouragement of learning was being exclusive- ly used, for many years, for the re-printing of old Sanskrit and Arabic books. Lord William Bentinck, one of the most benevolent governors-general India has ever known, had just taken in hand the reins of government. Lord Macaulay whose famous minute on English education finally decided a long-standing controversy that had raged for upwards of twenty years, had not yet arrived. Lord William Bentinck's celebrated Education Decree of the 7th March, 1835, was still, in the