Orientalist-Anglicist Controversy

Within the General Committee on Public Instruction, the Anglicists argued that the government spending on education should be exclusively for modern studies.

The Orientalists said while Western sciences and litera- ture should be taught to prepare students to take up jobs, emphasis should be placed on expansion of traditional Indian learning.

Even the Anglicists were divided over the question of medium of instruction—one faction was for English language as the medium, while the other faction was for Indian languages (vernaculars) for the purpose.

Unfortunately there was a great deal of confusion over English and vernacular languages as media of instruction and as objects of study.