Indian Universities Act, 1904

The dawn of 20th century saw political unrest. The official view was that under private management the quality of education had deteriorated and educational institutions acted as factories producing political revolutionaries. Nationalists accepted the decline in quality but accused the Government of not doing anything to eradicate illiteracy.

In 1902, Raleigh Commission was set up to go into conditions and prospects of universities in India and to suggest measures for improvement in their constitution and working. The commission precluded from reporting on primary or secondary education. Based on its recommendations, the Indian Universities Act was passed in 1904. As per the Act,

(i) universities were to give more attention to study and research;

(ii) the number of fellows of a university and their period in office were reduced and most fellows were to be nominated by the Government;

(iii) Government was to have powers to veto universities’ senate regulations and could amend these regulations or pass regulations on its own;

(iv) conditions were to be made stricter for affiliation of private colleges; and

(v) five lakh rupees were to be sanctioned per annum for five years for improvement of higher education and universities.

Curzon justified greater control over universities in the name of quality and efficiency, but actually sought to restrict education and to discipline the educated towards loyalty to the Government.

The nationalists saw in it an attempt to strengthen imperialism and to sabotage nationalist feelings. Gokhale called it a “retrograde measure”.