Preface

A great deal of scholarly work has been published on the history
of education in India, especially during the 1930s, and 1940s. In
fact, writings on the subject, initially by British officials-cum-
scholars, started to appear as early as the mid-nineteenth cen-
tury. Most of these histories, however, relate to the ancient
period, sometimes going as far back as the tenth or twelfth
century A.D. Others deal with the history of education during
British rule and thereafter. Besides detailed scholarly works on
specific ancient educational institutions (such as those at
Nalanda or Taxila), there are more general works like that of A.S.
Altekar^1 on the ancient period. For the later period, there have
been several publications: besides the two volumes of Selections
from Educational Records, published and recently reprinted by
the Government of India itself,^2 the work of S. Nurullah and J.P.
Naik may be mentioned here.^3 The latter work is interestingly
described by the two authors (thus indicating its time and mood)
as an attempt at a ‘well-documented and comprehensive account
of Indian educational history during the last one hundred and
sixty years and to interpret it from the Indian point of view.’^4

Reaching a far wider audience is the voluminous work of
Pandit Sundarlal, first published in 1939,^5 though perhaps less
academic. The 36th chapter of this celebrated work entitled, ‘The
Destruction of Indian Indigenous Education’, runs into 40 pages,