The Delhi College: Traditional Elites, the Colonial State, and Education before 1857

The Delhi College has been widely acclaimed as the centre of a Delhi Renaissance. This institution was the meeting ground of the British and Oriental culture before 1857. Through extensive translations programme and by making Urdu the medium of instruction, Delhi College aimed at making Western scholarship accessible to the Indian students without uprooting them from their own cultural traditions. This volume analyses the institution against the background of both traditional scholarship and the British education policy in the first half of the nineteenth century. This collection explores Delhi's society through the institution and the related individuals and traditions from different vantage points. The contributors are too well known and include William Dalrymple, Ebba Koch, M. Ikram Chaghatai, Swapna Liddle, C. M. Naim, Gail Minault, Avril A. Powell, Michael H. Fisher, Mushirul Hasan. Together they cover the institution in manifold ways: the history, architecture, the poetics, prominent pupils, cultural traditions etc. The editorial note is done by Margrit Pernau.