Renewal of the Charter

By 1830 it was becoming increasingly difficult for the Company to run the administration with only English officials and without the appointment of English-knowing and loyal Indians. At the same time, the evangelists found a great supporter of their cause in William Bentinck, who became the Governor General in 1828. William Bentinck was a friend of Charles Grant. Bentinck wrote a letter to the Committee of Public Instruction on the need to make English the official language of the Government and the language of education:

Earlier, in 1824, the Committee received a despatch in which the Court of Directors of the Company had stated their aims and objectives regarding the medium of instruction, and their intentions in granting one lakh rupees for the revival and improvement of literature and the encouragement of the learned natives of India. The Despatch of 1824 made it very clear that the provision made in the Act of 1813 was only ‘to make a favourable impression by our encouragement of their literature upon the minds of the natives’ and ‘the great end should not have been to teach Hindoo learning but useful learning’ (Sharp, 1911: 91–2).