Indian constitution at 14:55, 11 December 2025

2025-12-11T14:55:41Z

New page

{{Short description|Academy of oriental studies and a centre of learning}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}}
{{Use Indian English|date=July 2020}}
'''Fort William College''' (also known as the '''College of Fort William''') was an academy of [[Orientalism|oriental studies]] and a centre of learning, founded on 18 August 1800 by [[Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley|Lord Wellesley]], then [[Governor-General of India|Governor-General]] of [[British India]], located within the [[Fort William, India|Fort William]] complex in [[Kolkata|Calcutta]]. Wellesley started the Fort William College with the original intention that it would serve as a training ground for future European administrators. He backdated the statute of foundation to 4 May 1800, to commemorate the first anniversary of [[Siege of Seringapatam (1799)|his victory over Tipu Sultan at Seringapatam]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Memorials of Old Haileybury College |author1=Danvers, FC |author-link=Frederick Charles Danvers |author2=M. Monier-Williams |year=1894|publisher=Archibald Constable and Company|place=Westminster|page=238|url=https://archive.org/stream/memorialsoldhai00collgoog#page/n325/mode/2up|display-authors=etal}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rashid |first1=Abdur |title=From Makkah to Nuclear Pakistan |date=2001 |publisher=Ferozsons |isbn=978-969-0-01691-1 |page=181 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zORtAAAAMAAJ |language=en}}</ref> Numerous books were translated from [[Sanskrit]], [[Arabic]], [[Persian language|Persian]], [[Bengali language|Bengali]], [[Hindi]], and [[Urdu]] into English at this institution.

== History ==
Wellesley's position on efficient administration was quite different from his predecessor, [[Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis|Lord Cornwallis]], who insisted that an honest administration of British India by the company's servants could be ensured only by paying them adequate salaries. Wellesley, on the other hand, believed that an honest administration of British India by the company's servants could be ensured by adequate training and education, by combining efficiency with honesty.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Philips |first=C.H. |title=The East India Company, 1784-1834 |publisher=Oxford University Branch |year=1961 |edition=2nd |location=India |pages=125–134}}</ref>

Lord Wellesley initially intended this to be the "Oxford of the East", but his idea was scaled down to a school for Indian languages as a compromise over a long tussle with the Court of Directors of the [[East India Company]] led by [[Charles Grant (British East India Company)|Charles Grant]], who had threatened to close the college, the creation of which it had not authorized.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Embree |first=Ainslie T. |title=Charles Grant and British Rule in India |date=1962 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-87958-3 |series=Columbia Studies in the Social Sciences |location=New York, NY}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Kopf |first=David |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.2430755 |title=British Orientalism and the Bengal Renaissance: The Dynamics of Indian Modernization 1773-1835 |date=1969 |publisher=University of California Press |edition=1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rocher |first=Rosane |date=2002 |title=Sanskrit for Civil Servants 1806-1818 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3087633 |journal=Journal of the American Oriental Society |volume=122 |issue=2 |pages=381–390 |doi=10.2307/3087633 |issn=0003-0279|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

== Languages ==
Fort William College aimed at training British officials in [[Languages of India|Indian languages]] and, in the process, fostered the development of languages such as Bengali and Urdu.<ref name="Sarkar">Sarkar, Nikhil, ''Printing and the Spirit of Calcutta'', in ''Calcutta, the Living City'', Vol. I, edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri, pp. 130–2, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|0-19-563696-1}}.</ref> The period is of historical importance. In 1815, [[Ram Mohan Roy]] settled in Calcutta. It is considered by many historians to be the starting point of the [[Bengali Renaissance]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kopf |first=David |date=1961 |title=Fort William College and the Origins of the Bengal Renaissance |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44140769 |journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress |volume=24 |pages=296–303 |issn=2249-1937}}</ref><ref name="S2001">Sengupta, Nitish, 2001–02, ''History of the Bengali-speaking People'', UBS Publishers’ Distributors Pvt. Ltd., {{ISBN|81-7476-355-4}}.</ref>{{rp|212}} Establishment of [[The Calcutta Madrassa]] in 1781, the [[Asiatic Society]] in 1784 and the Fort William College in 1800, completed the first phase of Kolkata's emergence as an intellectual centre.<ref name="Majumdar">Majumdar, Swapan, ''Literature and Literary Life in Old Calcutta,'' in ''Calcutta, the Living City'', Vol I, edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri, pp. 107–9, [[Oxford University Press]], {{ISBN|0-19-563696-1}}.</ref>

The East India Company's administration needed Bengali printed works not only for the training of civil servants at the Fort William College, but also for codifying Company regulations and to provide a wider audience for British Orientalist scholars. [[William Carey (missionary)|William Carey]] established the first Bengali printing press as the [[Serampore Mission Press]] in 1800; with Carey's appointment as a teacher of Bengali in Fort William College that year, the Mission joined the efforts of the college in printing and publishing suitable textbooks in the vernacular. Between 1802 and 1852, books on diverse subjects-including history, legend, and moral tales- as well as a grammar and a dictionary were printed for Fort William College. Indigenous printing enterprises were not far behind: The first local entrepreneur was Babu Ram, who in 1807 set up his Sanskrit Press in Khidirpore to provide textbooks in Hindi and Sanskrit to Fort William.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ghosh |first=Anindita |date=2003 |title=An Uncertain "Coming of the Book": Early Print Cultures in Colonial India |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30227341 |journal=Book History |volume=6 |pages=23–55 |issn=1098-7371}}</ref>

Teaching of Asian languages dominated: Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Sanskrit, Bengali. Later, Marathi and even Chinese were added.<ref name="College">{{cite web
| url = http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~landc/bookplates/13_4_FtWilliam.htm
| title = College of Fort William
| access-date = 19 February 2007
| last = Diehl
| first = Katharine Smith
| publisher = Katharine Smith Diehl Seguin, Texas
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070430072337/http://www.gslis.utexas.edu/~landc/bookplates/13_4_FtWilliam.htm
| archive-date = 30 April 2007
| url-status = dead
}}</ref> Each department of the college was staffed by notable scholars. The Persian department was headed by [[Neil B. Edmonstone]], Persian translator to the East India Company's government since 1794.<ref name="Banglapedia">{{cite book |last=Islam |first=Sirajul |year=2012 |chapter=Fort William College |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Fort_William_College |editor1-last=Islam |editor1-first=Sirajul |editor1-link=Sirajul Islam |editor2-last=Jamal |editor2-first=Ahmed A. |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |edition=Second |publisher=[[Asiatic Society of Bangladesh]]}}</ref> While notable scholars were identified and appointed for different languages, there was no suitable person in Calcutta who could be appointed to teach Bengali. In those days, the Brahmin scholars learnt only Sanskrit, considered to be the language of the gods, and they did not study Bengali. The authorities decided to appoint Carey, who was with the Baptist Mission in [[Serampore]]. He, in turn, appointed Mrityunjoy Vidyalankar as head pandit, Ramnath Vachaspati as second pandit and [[Ramram Basu]] as one of the assistant pandits.<ref name="Mukhopadhyay">Mukhopadhyay, Prabhatkumar, Rammohun O Tatkalin Samaj O Sahitya, 1965, pp. 47–51, Viswa Bharati Granthan Bibhag {{in lang|bn}}.</ref>

Along with teaching, translations were organized. The college employed more than one hundred local linguists.<ref name="College" /> There were no textbooks available in Bengali. On 23 April 1789, the ''[[Calcutta Gazette]]'' published the humble request of several natives of Bengal for a Bengali grammar and dictionary.<ref name="Mukhopadhyay" />

==Location==
The college was located at the corner of Council House Street and [[B. B. D. Bagh|Dalhousie Square]] (now B. B. D. Bagh). After the college closed the building had a series of occupancies. First it was ''The Exchange'' of Messrs. Mackenzie Lyall & Co., then offices of the [[Bengal Nagpur Railway]]<ref name = "Cotton">Cotton, H.E.A., ''Calcutta Old and New'', 1909/1980, General Printers and Publishers Pvt. Ltd.</ref>{{rp|271}} and later the local [[HSBC Bank India|HSBC Bank office]].<ref name = "Cotton" />{{rp|544}}

==Library==
[[File:Exlibris FortWilliamCollegeLibrary.jpg|thumb|Ex libris from the Fort William College Library]]
The college library of Fort William was an important centre of learning and housed a magnificent collection of old manuscripts and many valuable historical books from across [[South Asia]]. Multiple MS copies were printed.<ref name="College" /><ref>{{cite web
| url =http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00urdu/baghobahar/BBFORTWM.pdf
| title = Selected publications of Fort William College| access-date = 19 February 2007| last = Pritchett | first = Frances| work = First Editions recommended for preservation| publisher = [[Columbia University]] }}</ref> When the college was dissolved in 1854, the books of the collection listed for preservation were transferred to the newly formed Calcutta Public Library, now the [[National Library of India|National Library]].<ref name="College" /> Some books were transferred to the [[Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales|School of Oriental Languages in Paris]] and are now held at [[Bibliothèque universitaire des langues et civilisations|BULAC]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Fort William College Collection at BULAC (in French)|url=https://bina.bulac.fr/FWC|access-date=January 24, 2021|website=[[bina : collections patrimoniales numérisées de la BULAC]]}}</ref>

==Hurdles==
[[File:Ex libris FWC.jpg|thumb|Ex-libris of the Fort William College Library]]
The Court of Directors of the [[British East India Company]] were never in favor of a training college in Calcutta, and for that reason, there was always a lack of funds for running the college. Subsequently, a separate college for the purpose, the [[East India Company College]] at Haileybury (England), was established in 1807. However, Fort William College continued to be a center of learning languages.<ref name="College" /><ref name="Banglapedia" />

With the British settling down in the seat of power, their requirements changed. [[Lord William Bentinck]] announced his educational policy of public instruction in English in 1835, mostly to cater to the growing needs of administration and commerce.<ref name="S2001" />{{rp|236}} He clipped the wings of Fort William College, and the [[James Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie|Dalhousie]] administration formally dissolved the institution in 1854.<ref name="Banglapedia" />

==Eminent scholars==
Fort William College was served by a number of eminent scholars. They contributed enormously towards development of Indian languages and literature. Some of them are noted below:
* [[William Carey (missionary)|William Carey]] (1761–1834) was with Fort William College from 1801 to 1831. During this period he published a Bengali grammar and dictionary, numerous textbooks, the [[Bible]], grammar and dictionary in other Indian languages.<ref name="SSCB">Sengupta, Subodh Chandra and Bose, Anjali (editors), 1976/1998, ''Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan'' (Biographical dictionary) Vol I, {{ISBN|81-85626-65-0}} {{in lang|bn}}.</ref>{{rp|112}}
* [[Matthew Lumsden]] (1777–1835) was educated at [[King's College, Aberdeen|King's College]], Old Aberdeen. He went to India as assistant professor of Persian and Arabic in the College of Fort William, and in 1808, succeeded to the professorship.
* [[John Gilchrist (linguist)|John Borthwick Gilchrist]] (June 1759 – 1841) was principally known for his study of the Hindustani language. He compiled and authored ''An English-Hindustani Dictionary'', ''A Grammar of the Hindoostanee Language'', and ''The Oriental Linguist.''
[[File:Catalogue des ouvrages conservés au Fort William College.jpg|thumb|Catalogue of the books in the Library of the College of Fort William (''[https://bina.bulac.fr/FWC/BULAC.RES.MON.FOL.234. Bibliothèque Numérique Aréale],'' BULAC)]]

* Mrityunjay Vidyalankar (c. 1762 – 1819) was the First Pandit at Fort William College. He wrote a number of textbooks and is considered the first 'conscious artist' of Bengali prose.<ref>Acharya, Poromesh, ''Education in Old Calcutta'', in ''Calcutta, the Living City'', Vol I, edited by Sukanta Chaudhuri, pp. 108–9, Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|0-19-563696-1}}.</ref> Although a Sanskrit scholar he started writing Bengali as per the needs of Fort William College. He published ''Batris Singhasan'' (1802), ''Hitopodesh'' (1808) and ''Rajabali'' (1808). The last named book was the first published history of India. Mrityunjoy did not know English so the contents were possibly provided by other scholars of Fort William College.<ref name="Mukhopadhyay" />
* Tarini Charan Mitra (1772–1837), a scholar in English, Urdu, Hindi, Arabic and Persian, was with the Hindustani department of Fort William College. He had translated many stories into Bengali.<ref name="SSCB" />{{rp|196}}
* [[Lallu Lal]] (also spelt as Lalloolal or Lallo Lal), the father of [[History of the Hindi language|Sanskritized]] [[Hindustani language|Hindustani]] prose, was instructor in Hindustani at Fort William College. In 1815, he printed and published the first book in the old Hindi literary language, [[Braj Bhasha]], [[Tulsidas]]'s [[Vinaya Patrika|Vinaypatrika]].<ref name="Sarkar" />
* [[Ramram Basu]] (1757–1813) was with the Fort William College. He assisted [[William Carey (missionary)|William Carey]], [[Joshua Marshman]] and [[William Ward (missionary)|William Ward]] in the publication of the first Bengali translation of the Bible.<ref name="Sarkar" />
* [[Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar]] (1820–1891) was head pandit at Fort William College from 1841 to 1846. He concentrated on English and Hindi while serving in the college.<ref name="SSCB" />{{rp|64}} After discharging his duties as academician, and engagements as a reformer he had little time for creative writing. Yet through the textbooks he produced, the pamphlets he wrote, and retelling of [[Kālidāsa|Kalidasa's]] ''[[Shakuntala (play)|Abhijñānaśākuntalam]]'' and [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare's]] ''[[The Comedy of Errors|A Comedy of Errors]]'', he set the norm of standard Bengali prose.<ref name="Majumdar" />
* [[Madanmohan Tarkalankar|Madan Mohan Tarkalankar]] (1817–1858)

==References==
{{Reflist|2}}

==Further reading==
*{{cite journal |journal=Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society |series=New Series |date=October 1955 |volume=87 |pages=105–123 |location=London |publisher=The Royal Asiatic Society |doi=10.1017/S0035869X00114029 |title=The East India Company's Education of its Own Servants |first=John |last=Bowen|issue=3–4 }}



[[Category:Academic institutions associated with the Bengal Renaissance]]
[[Category:Defunct universities and colleges in India]]
[[Category:Education in Kolkata]]
[[Category:Educational institutions established in 1800]]
[[Category:Educational institutions disestablished in 1854]]
[[Category:1800 establishments in British India]]
[[Category:1854 disestablishments in British India]]
[[Category:18th century in Kolkata]]
[[Category:Universities and colleges established in the 1800s]]
[[Category:Defunct educational institutions]]
[[Category:1854 disestablishments in India]]

Fort William College - Revision history

Indian constitution at 14:55, 11 December 2025