DISPARITIES OF ‘CASTE’ AND ‘CLASS’ IN COLONIAL EDUCATIONAL POLICIES OF 19TH CENTURY BENGAL

Education is often seen as presenting opportunities for the marginalized sections of the populace, using which, they can hope to improve their lives. The contributions of Savitribai Phule, Jyotirao Phule and Satyashodhak Samaj towards the spread of education amongst women and lower caste groups in 19th Century Maharashtra, implied that Company rule had presented certain opportunities, utilising which, the status-quo of gender, caste and class within Indian society, can be challenged. However, since the publication of the ‘Minute on Indian Education’ by Thomas Babington Macaulay and its subsequent adaptation after 1835, the colonial government continued to pursue discriminative policies towards those, it deemed to be belonging to lower ‘caste’ and ‘class’ amongst its Indian subjects. In this paper, I would like to focus on certain aspects of such discriminatory policies, as recorded in the colonial documents of 19th Century Bengal.