Education in India

Monastic orders of education under the supervision of a guru was a favored form of education for the nobility in ancient India.[8] The knowledge in these orders was often related to the tasks a section of the society had to perform.[9] The priest class, the Brahmins, were imparted knowledge of religion, philosophy, and other ancillary branches while the warrior class, the Kshatriya, were trained in the various aspects of warfare.[9] The business class, the Vaishya, were taught their trade and the working class of the Shudras was generally deprived of educational advantages.[9] The book of laws, the Manusmriti, and the treatise on statecraft the Arthashastra were among the influential works of this era which reflect the outlook and understanding of the world at the time.[9]

Secular Buddhist institutions cropped up along with monasteries.[9] These institutions imparted practical education, e.g. medicine.[9] A number of urban learning centres became increasingly visible from the period between 200 BCE to 400 CE.[10] The important urban centres of learning were Taxila and Nalanda, among others.[10] These institutions systematically imparted knowledge and attracted a number of foreign students to study topics such as Buddhist literature, logic, grammar, etc.[10]

By the time of the visit of the Islamic scholar Alberuni (973–1048 CE), India already had a sophisticated system of mathematics.

With the arrival of the British Raj in India the modern European education came to India. British Raj was reluctant to introduce mass education system as it was not their interest. The colonial educational policy was deliberately one of reducing indigenous culture and religion, an approach which became known as Macaulayism.[11] The system soon became solidified in India as a number of primary, secondary, and tertiary centres for education cropped up during the colonial era.[12] Between 1867 and 1941 the British increased the percentage of the population in Primary and...