Extract from the Report on Public Instruction in Bengal, 1849-1850

Extract from the Report on Public Instruction in Bengal, for the year 1849-50.

        "The most important occurrence of the past year was an intimation from the Government that the Council of Education were henceforward to consider their functions as comprising the superintendence of Native Female Education.

        "The Council lost no time in making known the sentiments of the Government to all persons connected with the Institutions already under their charge, requesting them to give the fullest possible effect to the Government instructions, by making them generally known to all in their neighbourhood who take an interest in or are likely to aid the cause.

        "In promulgating the intelligence, the Council intimated their conviction that a measure fraught with such important consequences, and so eminently calculated to extend the benefits and influence of education, would meet with the most cordial support of every person connected with the Education department.

        "The Council do not deem it necessary to enter into a detailed consideration of the nature and extent of the benefits likely to result to India from the education of Females. Its importance and the vast influence which it has exercised in the Western hemisphere upon the civilization, prosperity and happiness of European nations are great facts, and so universally acknowledged as to need no demonstration. It is believed that this influence will be even greater, if possible, in Eastern countries, where all the earliest and most lasting impressions of infancy and childhood are now produced and fostered by uneducated and superstitious mothers. The evil influence of the zenana is, in very many instances, never eradicated; and much of the good learnt by a boy at school and college, is neutralized by, the habits of his domestic circle, and the absence of educated companions for his hours of leisure and repose. Female education is known not to be opposed to any, of the religious doctrines of the Hindus, indeed, in the early days of her prosperity, Hindustan could boast of her learned and virtuous females; whose fame was as far spread as that of any eminent European lady of ancient or modern times. Such being the case, the Council confidently, rely on the cordial support of all liberal and enlightened natives of India, in a measure from which they may in a short time, reap the greatest and most enduring advantages."

From: Bureau of Education. Selections from Educational Records, Part II (1840-1859). Edited by J. A. Richey. Calcutta: Superintendent Government Printing, 1922. Reprint. Delhi: National Archives of India, 1965, 60-61.