Minute by Governor-General, April 17, 1782

Minute by the Governor-General, Warren Hastings, dated the 17th April 1781.

        In the month of September 1780 a petition was presented to me by a considerable number of Mussulmen of credit and learning, who attended in a body for that purpose praying that I would use my influence with a stranger of the name of Mudgid O'din who was then lately arrived at the Presidency to persuade him to remain there for the instruction of young students in the Mahomedan law, and in such other sciences as are taught in the Mahomedan schools for which he was represented to be uncommonly qualified. They represented that this was a favourable occasion to establish a Madressa or College, and Mudgid O'din the fittest person to form and preside in it, that Calcutta was already become the seat of a great empire, and the resort of persons from all parts of Hindoostan and Deccan, that it had been the pride of every polished court and the wisdom of every well regulated Government both in India and in Persia to promote by such institutions the growth and extension of liberal knowledge, that in India only the traces of them now remain, the decline of learning having accompanied that of the Mogul Empire, that the numerous offices of our Government which required men of improved abilities to fill and the care which had been occasionally observed to select men of the first eminence in the science of jurisprudence to officiate as judges in the criminal and assessors in the Civil Courts of Judicature, and (I hope this addition will not be imputed to me as ostentation on an occasion in which the sincerity of what I shall hereafter propose for the public patronage will be best evident by my own example) the belief which generally prevailed that men so accomplished usually met with a distinguished reception from myself [which] afforded them particular encouragement, to hope that a proposal of this nature would prove acceptable to the actual Government.

        This was the substance of the Petition which I can only repeat from my memory, having mislaid the original.

        I dismissed them with a promise of complying with their wishes to the utmost of my power. I sent for the man on whom they had bestowed such encomiums and prevailed upon him to accept of the office designed for him. He opened his school about the beginning of October and has bestowed an unremitted attention on it to this time, with a success and reputation which have justified the expectation which has been formed of it. Many students have already finished their education under his instructions and have received their dismission in form and many dismissed unknown to me. The master supposing himself limited to a fixed monthly sum which would not admit a larger number besides day scholars, he has at this time forty boarders mostly natives of these Provinces, but some sojourners from other parts of India. Among them I had the satisfaction of seeing on the last new year's day, some who had come from the districts
of Cashmeer, Guzarat, and one from the Carnatic.

        I am assured that the want of suitable accommodation alone prevents an increase of the number. For this reason I have lately made a purchase of a convenient piece of ground near the Boita Connah in a quarter of the town called Podpoker and have laid the foundation of a square building for a madressa constructed on the plan of similar edifices in other parts of India.

        Thus far I have prosecuted the undertaking on my own means and with no very liberal supplies I am now constrained to recommend it to the Board, and through that channel to the Hon'ble Court of Directors for a more adequate and permanent endowment.

        By an estimate of the building which with a plan and elevation of it shall accompany this minute the whole cost of it will be 51,000 Arcot Rupees, to which I shall beg leave to add the price of the ground being 6,280 Sa Rupees. The amount of both is Arcot rupees 57,745-2-11. It shall be my care to prevent an excess of this sum which I request may be placed to the Company's accounts, and a bond allowed me for the amount and that I may be enabled by the sanction of the Board to execute this work.

        I must likewise propose that a parcel of land may be assigned for the growing charge of this foundation.

The present expense is as follows:

        The day scholars pay nothing. In the proportion of the above expense an establishment of 100 Scholars may be estimated at 10,000 Rupees per month at the utmost. I would recommend that the rents of one or more Mousa or villages in the neighbourhood of the place be assigned for the monthly expence of the proposed Madressa and that it be referred to the Committee of Revenue to provide and make the endowment and to regulate the mode of collection and payment in such a manner as to fix and ascertain the amount and periods of both and prevent any future abuses of one or misapplication of the other. For the present an assignment of half the estimated sum will be sufficient.

WARREN HASTINGS.

FORT WILLIAM;
The 17th April 1781.

Agreed. E. WHEELER.

Ordered that the estimate enclosed in the above minute be entered after the Consultation.

Agreed to the Governor-General's request and ordered accordingly.

Ordered that copies of the above minute and its enclosure together with the plan and elevation of the building therein mentioned be transmitted to the Hon'ble the Court of Directors by the ships under dispatch and the subject particularly recommended to them for the purposes set forth by the Governor-General.

From: Bureau of Education. Selections from Educational Records, Part I (1781-1839). Edited by H. Sharp. Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1920. Reprint. Delhi: National Archives of India, 1965, 7-10.