The Seat of Learning Recast

Examining The Archive of the Transformation of Hindoo College to the Presidency College

Abstract

The historiographical lacuna in the studies of the functioning of higher educational institutions in the early colonial period has long been a norm in Indian history. Apart from the initial politics of the inauguration of these institutions, their subsequent changes have been almost entirely overlooked in mainstream historiography, which is particularly lamentable in view of the rich state archive that records the functioning of these institutions minutely. One such archival record, which is a collection of official letters dealing with the transformation of Hindoo College in Calcutta into Presidency College, will be critically examined here in order to underline the massive transformations that a mere change of nomenclature entailed, the official rhetoric that concealed larger political suppressions, to recover the voices of the indigenous actors and stakeholders who were involved, and to further identify how particular archival records interacted with the larger policies of the colonial government.