Scroll.in, 27 September 2025
Modern university education in India is considered a colonial transplant. In the late 18th century, Warren Hastings proposed the teaching of the English language, along with Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit being taught in oriental schools. The teaching of subjects like mathematics and natural sciences was also introduced in existing schools of oriental learning. European-style colleges teaching arts and sciences made their debut in the early nineteenth century. The change was reflected in a string of new institutions in Bengal and Western India: Presidency College (Calcutta), Elphinstone College (Bombay), Deccan College (Poona), and engineering colleges at Serampore and Roorkee. Medical schools came up in Calcutta, Madras, Dacca and Bombay during this period. Thomas Babington Macaulay, as the law member of the Governor-General’s Council in 1835, advocated making English as the medium of instruction and putting an end to the state support for oriental learning. He argued that vernacular languages had not developed to a level where they could become vehicles for the transmission of Western knowledge.
After the revolt of 1857, full-fledged
universities offering courses in different disciplines were established
in the Presidency towns of Calcutta, Madras and Bombay. The European
model of university education inspired colleges and universities at
Allahabad, Aligarh and Lahore, around 1875. In princely India, the
oriental system of education continued and the progress of modern higher
education was slow. Schools started imparting modern education but
universities like Baroda, Mysore and Osmania were set up only in the
early part of the 20th century, almost 75 years after higher education
had been introduced in British India.
In Hyderabad, State support for education was initiated by Mir Turab Ali Khan (Salar Jung I) who became the Diwan in 1853. Darul-Uloom, an oriental college, opened in 1856 with Arabic and Persian as the mediums of instruction. It was to be the centre of oriental learning in the Deccan and the means of diffusing the taste of culture through classics, according to Salar Jung. Four modern languages (Urdu, Kannada, Marathi and English) were also taught to those interested. To attract students, the administration offered scholarships and promised jobs to those completing the course. As the European population grew steadily, English-medium schools – St George’s Grammar School (founded in 1834), All Saints’ High School, Methodist Boys School and Wesley Mission Girls School – were founded by Christian missionaries. For the children of nobility, Salar Jung started Madrasa-i-Aliya as an alternative to homeschooling.
Higher education in Hyderabad received an impetus with the import of academics from outside. The first one was Syed Hussain Bilgrami, a professor of English literature at Lucknow’s Canning College, whom Salar Jung appointed as his private secretary in 1870. Bilgrami, who was made the director of Public Instruction in 1885, reorganised school education across the state. Apart from being the personal secretary to the sixth Nizam, he was also the tutor of the heir apparent, Osman Ali Khan. Another scientist-educationist who came to Hyderabad at the invitation of Salar Jung was Dr Aghorenath Chattopadhyaya who founded the Gloria High School (also known as Chaderghat High School) in 1881. It was merged with the City English School (which was established as a branch of Darul-Uloom) and upgraded into a second-grade college, Hyderabad College. In 1887, Hyderabad College was further upgraded to form Nizam College. Nizam College was affiliated to Madras University and Chattopadhyaya was appointed its first principal. To commemorate the investiture of Mir Mahbub Ali Khan in 1884, two existing schools in Secunderabad were merged to form the Mahbub College.
The educational institutions in Hyderabad in the late 19th century were dependent on the university system in British India for affiliation and examination. The first Matriculation Examination of Madras University in Hyderabad was held in 1875. Darul-Uloom became affiliated with Panjab University for its Oriental Titles Examination in Arabic and Persian.
At this time, new ideas for starting a university were floating around in Hyderabad. Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, an English evangelist of education among Muslims, advocated a Mohammedan University as “the centre of religious thought for all India” in 1884, just after a young Mahbub Ali Khan was invested full powers of the Nizam. Blunt wanted the proposed university to provide “all useful sciences and all branches of solid learning” like the Azhar University in Cairo. He even coined a name for it – Deccan University – and sent a note to the Nizam requesting him to grant a building for it. An old mosque in Kalbarga and another building in Aurangabad were identified as potential sites to locate the university. Bilgrami, however, struck a note of caution saying “The Government of India will never consent to such a plan”.
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