MUSLIM EDUCATION IN BENGAL 1837-1937

184 SYED MURTAZA ALI
supersede the Madrassah education as passport to public service and other
profitable spheres of life. The Madrassah system became a blind alley
leading nowhere. A new phase had begun in the history of education with
the foundation of the Calcutta University in 1857. Though Sir Charles
Wood's despatch of 1854 had included "Mohammedan Madrassahs"
in the list of educational institutions worthy of being affiliated to the
University" neither Calcutta Madrassah nor any other Madrassah was
included within the Calcutta University Scheme and granted affiliation
to the University.
7. This was a grievous mistake. The Calcutta Madrassah ought to
have been incorporated within the University system with such modi-
fications in courses of study as might have been needed. The Calcutta
University Commission (Sadlern Commission) held that if the madrassahs
had been included within the University system as recommended in Wood's
despatch "the whole subsequent history of the problem of the education of
the Mussalmans of Bengal, might have been different." Moslem Educa-
tion Advisory Committee 1934 set up by Government of Bengal (Momin
Committee) also held the same view.4
8. The exclusion of Calcutta Madrassah from the University system
was perhaps made under the idea that shut out from worldly prospects
the Madrassah system would be deserted by the Muslims and they would
betake themselves to the English system of secular education like the
Hindus. The Muslims however held aloof from a system which made
no provision for religious education so much valued by them. They re-
mained loyal to the system which Calcutta Madrassah represented, with
the consequence that they were cut off from the general line of progress
and the main current of life and lost ground in every sphere.
Defects of Calcutta Madrassah
9. Attempts to introduce teaching of English in Madrassah did not
succeed. The Mussalmans themselves were not free from blame. They
silently acquiesced in all administrative changes that were detrimental to
their interests without any protest. The Hindu College was not open to
Muslims. Holt Mackenzie proposed in 1825 the establishment of a sepa-
rate English College for the advanced students of Hindu College, Calcutta
Madrassah and Sanskrit College.5 The General Committee for Public
Instruction drew up an ambitious plan of creating a Central English College.
b