Education
in India
From time immemorial,
India has been a centre for learning. Thousands of years ago,
great scholars used to teach through the scriptures. A variety
of subjects such as philosophy, religion, medicine, literature,
drama and arts, astrology, mathematics and sociology were taught
and masterpieces on these subjects have been written. Under the
Buddhist influence, education was available to virtually everyone
who wanted it and some world famous institutions arose out of
the monasteries, such as, Nalanda, Vikramshila and Takshashila.
Nalanda is especially noteworthy, flourishing from 5th to 13th
century AD. It had at one time about ten thousand resident students
and teachers on its roll, which included Chinese, Sri Lankan,
Korean and other international scholars.
During the 11th century,
the Muslims established elementary and secondary schools, "Madrassahs"
or colleges and even universities at cities like Delhi, Lucknow
and Allahabad, using Arabic mostly as the medium of instruction.
During the mediaeval period, there was excellent interaction between
Indian and Islamic traditions in all fields of knowledge, like
theology, religion, philosophy, fine arts, painting, architecture,
mathematics, medicine and astronomy.
With the arrival of
the British, English education came into being with the help of
the European missionaries. In 1817, Hindu College was established
in Calcutta. The Elphinstone Institution was set up in 1834 in
Bombay. In 1857 three universities were set up at Calcutta, Madras
and Bombay. Since then, Western education has made steady advances
in the country. With 226 universities and thousands of colleges
affiliated to them, 428 Engineering colleges and technological
institutes, more than a 100 medical colleges, scores of agricultural
institutes and many other specialized centres of learning and
research in every subject and discipline, India can claim its
position as one of the leading countries providing quality higher
education to its people as well as to students and scholars coming
from countries all over the world.
Indian universities
and institutes of higher education and research today have made
a significant contribution to transmission of knowledge and enquiry
into frontiers of science and technology. In the field of traditional
subjects of arts and humanities as well as in pure sciences, applied
physics and chemistry, mathematics and in areas of technology,
the universities and higher institutes have been playing a leading
role to transform the country into a modern industrialized, technologically
advanced state. The ushering of green revolution and tremendous
progress in dairy development have made India a major food-producing
country on one hand; on the other hand, its development of space
technology, production and launching of indigenous satellites,
development of peaceful nuclear energy have brought it into the
forefront of technologically advanced nations to which a large
number of developing countries looks for training and guidance
The Indian universities
and institutes of higher learning have been playing their role
to promote the needs and aspirations of higher education and research
to Indian students and scholars. These centres have been extending
their cooperation and friendship towards students of other developing
countries also, where facilities for higher studies and research
are not adequate. In addition, a number of overseas students are
also drawn to Indian educational institutions providing high quality
education at very competitive prices.
