Q. With reference to educational institutions during colonial rule in India, consider the following pairs :
| Institution | Founder |
|---|
| 1. Sanskrit College at Benaras | William Jones |
| 2. Calcutta Madarsa | Warren Hastings |
| 3. Fort William College | Arthur Wellesley |
Which of the pairs given above is/are correct?
Answer:
2 only
Notes: The correct answer is
[B] 2 only. During the British colonial period, several educational institutions were established to train officials or conciliate the local elite by promoting traditional learning alongside administrative needs.
- Calcutta Madarsa (Pair 2 – Correct): Established by Warren Hastings in 1781. It was the first educational institution set up by the British East India Company, aimed at the study of Muslim law and related subjects to assist in the administration of justice.
- Sanskrit College at Benaras (Pair 1 – Incorrect): This college was founded in 1791 by Jonathan Duncan, the then Resident at Benaras, to study Hindu law and philosophy. William Jones is famous for founding the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784, not the Sanskrit College.
- Fort William College (Pair 3 – Incorrect): Founded in 1800 by Richard Wellesley (Lord Wellesley), the Governor-General, to train British civil servants in Indian languages and customs. Arthur Wellesley was Richard’s brother (later the Duke of Wellington) and a military general, not the founder of the college.
The establishment of these institutions marked the early "Orientalist" phase of British education policy, which sought to govern India through its own laws and traditions before the shift toward "Anglicism" in the 1830s.