TJp to that year, 1854, during the rule in India of the English East India Company, only small and local efforts had beeu made by the state to educate the people, and even these had languished. The college of Fort William, established during the Marquis Wellesley's administration, was again abolished in 1853. But in 1881, Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay cities each had a university, with professors, and granting degrees in arts, medi cine, law, and civil engineering. In the ten years 1872 to 1881, there had been 56,847 candidates for matriculation, of whom 21,182 had passed.
In 1881 there were 79,953 institutions for youths, and 2590 for girls, with 2,195,614 scholars, of whom 120,365 were females. At the B.A. examination at Calcutta University in 1883, for the first time in the history of that body, two young. Bengali ladies appeared as candidates, and were declared to have .passed.' The two girl graduates are named Chandramukhi Bose and Kadambini Bose. They were educated at the Bethune School in this city. The receipts im 1881 were Rs. 1,65,91,016, and expenditure Rs. 1,75,95,323. In 1882, during the Earl of Ripon's administration, Dr. W. W. Hnnter was placed at
the head of a commission to investigate the posi tion of the Indian Government towards the people, in connection with the questions of high education and primary education.
During Hindu and Mahomedan supremacy, except in a few rare places, the education of their subjects was left to the benevolent efforts of learned men, who taught gratuitously such pupils as sought instruction ; and this practice is con tinued to the present time. Since the arrival from Europe of Portuguese, Dutch, Danes, Italians, French, and British, their Christian missionaries of all sects have striven to spread education amongst the people, and there are Christian schools and colleges in which the English lan guage is the medium of instruction, which com pete successfully with the institutions established by the Indian Government.
Education in China is very general, and is largely encouraged by the state, but few women are educated. Children at six years of age are sent to school. The successful competitors for the literary degrees of M.A., B.A., and others axe congratulated. Papers bearing Chinese characters are greatly venerated. See Han-lin.