An Economic History of Education in Colonial India

This paper studies the provision of schooling in British India from 1850 to 1917, when education policy was under the direct control of the East India Company and the British Crown. Although colonial policy made several recommendations to increase mass schooling, the growth of primary education generally lagged behind secondary education over most of the period. In addition to official policy, several local factors were critical to the provision of schools at the district-level. While the level of caste and religious diversity was negatively correlated with the number of public primary schools, the share of Brahmans (traditional Hindu elites) was positively correlated with secondary schools. Moreover, in more diverse districts there was undue private emphasis on secondary versus primary education. Thus, the new public system was successful in developing a network of secondary schools and colleges using public and private sources of revenue as compared to expanding mass primary schooling.