Clive Whitehead

The historiography of British imperial education policy, Part I: India

Colonial education has been controversial and widely divergent interpretations have been offered from contrasting ideological perspectives. British imperial education policy was highly contended during the colonial era and remains a contentious issue amongst many contemporary historians and a critical review of the historiography of the subject is long overdue. British colonial education policy starts in India in 1813, the intention being to promote both Oriental culture and Western science. But a former Director of Public Instruction, writing in the 1920s, claimed that education had done far less for Indian culture than for the material and political progress of India. More recent academic writing about the history of education in British India has been both intermittent and of mixed quality. To date, much of the criticism of British policy appears to have been motivated more by emotion rather than by detailed scholarly analysis and this account argues that more ‘plodding’ in archives is urgently needed at the present time to substantiate, refine or refute the claims of India’s educational historians. This is the first part of a two‐part article, the second of which will deal with Africa and the rest of the colonial Empire.

The medium of instruction in British Colonial education: a case of cultural imperialism or enlightened paternalism? 1

1A version of this paper was first presented in December 1993 at the annual conference of the Australia New Zealand Comparative and International Education Society held at the University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia. For more detail on this theme see my essay ; ‘British colonial education policy: a synonym for cultural imperialism?’, in J. A. Mangan, ed., Benefits Bestowed? Education and British Imperialism(Manchester University Press, 1988), 211–30.

The historiography of British Imperial education policy, Part II: Africa and the rest of the colonial empire

Part II of this historiographical study examines British education policy in Africa, and in the many crown colonies, protectorates, and mandated territories around the globe. Up until 1920, the British government took far less interest than in India, in the development of schooling in Africa and the rest of the colonial empire, and education was generally left to local initiative and voluntary effort. British interest in the control of education policy in Africa and elsewhere lasted only from the 1920s to the 1950s, as territories assumed responsibility for their own internal affairs as a prelude to independence. Nevertheless, critics were not slow to attack British direction of colonial education in the 1930s and thereafter.In retrospect it is clear that colonial education policy was fraught with much confusion of purpose and lack of resources, apathy and hostility. The literature has ranged from close scholarly studies of education policy in individual countries to passionate and more theoretically based critiques of colonial schooling. But as immediate passions surrounding demise of the Empire have receded, alternative analyses have begun to emerge.

The Concept of British Education Policy in the Colonies 1850–1960

It is common in the literature to refer to British colonial education policy as if it were ‘a settled course adopted and purposefully carried into action’, but in reality it was never like that. Contrary to popular belief, the size and diversity of the empire meant that no one really ruled it in any direct sense. Clearly some kind of authority had to be exercised from London but as Arthur Mayhew said of education policy in the Colonial Empire in 1938: ‘No Secretary of State for the Colonies … [is] anxious to adopt too definite a policy. He will be content with a few assumptions and a statement of general principles. And he will not be surprised if these principles in their local application are adapted with the utmost elasticity to local conditions.’ In the absence of any strong direction from the centre, this paper examines the factors that shaped twentieth century education policy in the 47 crown colonies, protectorates and mandates under the aegis of the Colonial Office in Whitehall. They included the all‐important attitudes of the governor and his senior administrative officers towards education; the status of the director of education; the influence of the Christian missions both in London and in the colonies; denominational rivalry; long‐standing British educational traditions based on social class; the state of the local economy; the attitudes of the European settlers; the advice and status of the London‐based Advisory Committee on Education in the Colonies; the influence of the Secretary of State for the Colonies on the government of the day; the attitudes of key senior Colonial Office officials towards education; indigenous pressure groups; special reports and recommendations; war; national rivalry; the so‐called Cold War; post‐war constitutional changes, and the pressure of world opinion as reflected in the League of Nations after 1918 and the United Nations after 1945. Clearly there was great diversity in the ways in which education was developed from one territory to another but only detailed case studies can generate the data for broader and more historically accurate hypotheses about the development of British colonial education as a whole.

The impact of the Second World War on British colonial education policy 1

1 I wish to thank the Public Record Office for providing access to the Cox Papers (CP) which were the principal source of material for this article.

The Nestor of British Colonial Education: A Portrait of Arthur Mayhew CIE, CMG (1878-1948)

1Mayhew left no personal papers apart from an unpublished memoir of his early childhood years and his time at Winchester and New College, so the story of most of his adult life must necessarily be reconstructed from miscellaneous official and semi‐official sources and from the memories of his surviving family. I am, accordingly, much indebted to Mr John Mayhew and Mrs Felicity Harlow, Mayhews surviving son and daughter, and to Rear‐Adm (Retd) Anthony Davies, Mayhews nephew, for so readily supplying me with information about Mayhews immediate family, family background and those all‐too‐rare glimpses into his private life

Miss Freda Gwilliam (1907‐1987): A Portrait of the ‘Great Aunt’ of British Colonial Education

1I wish to record my thanks to the staff of the Public Record Office at both Kew and Chancery Lane for providing me with access to the papers of the late Sir Christopher Cox. Without their co‐operation this article could not have been written.