Introduction: Empire Civil Society, and Educational Transformation in India
A Colonial Experiment in Education, Madras, 1789-
Education of the Poor, 1805-
Missionaries, Empire, and the Cause of Universal Education, 1792-1824 Race, Class, and Gender: The Social Agenda of Education, 1809-
Rules and Numbers: Transforming Rural Education, 1814-
Intellectual Conquest: Education Societies, 'Useful Knowledge', and the Bengal Renaissance, 1817-
Civil Society, Government, and Educational Institution-Building, Bombay Presidency, 1819-
Teaching the Marginalized: Universal Education and the Politics of Inequality, 1789-
Conclusion: The Emergence of Public Elementary Schooling in an Imperial Frame

Empire, Civil Society, and the Beginnings of Colonial Education in India tells a story of radical educational change. In the early nineteenth century, an imperial civil society movement promoted modern elementary 'schools for all'. This movement included British, American, and German missionaries and Indian intellectuals and social reformers. They organized themselves in non-governmental organizations, which aimed to change Indian education. First, they introduced a new culture of schooling, centred on memorization, examination, and technocratic management. Second, they laid the ground for the building of the colonial system of education, which substituted indigenous education. Third, they broadened the social accessibility of schooling. However, for the nineteenth-century reformers, education for all did not mean equal education for all: elementary schooling became a means to teach different subalterns 'their place' in colonial society. Finally, the educational movement also furthered the building of a secular 'national education' in England.