Paper short abstract:

The rhetoric of ´´backward native states´´ provided new ground for colonial projects of reform through education. This paper locates such efforts in the post-1857 period and analyses shifts in the colonial discourse and practices around princely education by focusing on two Nawabs of Rampur.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines colonial discourses and practices regarding education of princely state rulers. My paper focuses on the education of two Nawabs of Rampur, Hamid Ali Khan (1889-1930) and Raza Ali Khan (1930-49). It does so by looking at early efforts to set a curriculum in order to raise enlightened princes through English tutors and travel to Europe. Nawab Hamid Ali Khan's travelogue of Europe provides fascinating details of education through travel and its impact. This generated debates regarding education and also about the kind of ruler people wanted- an anglicized enlightened monarch or an informed native ruler familiar with the people and their aspirations. What constituted a good ruler was his rootedness in local traditions. The colonial officials also worried about anglicized rulers out of touch with the conditions in their own states. Subsequently, under Curzonian vision the anglicized Indian, just like the indianized Englishmen, were seen as 'hybrids of an unnatural kind''. Simultaneously, efforts were made by colonial official from the military and education department to educate princes through regulated life at residential educational institutions within India. The paper will focus on the educational reform project at Rajkumar college in Rajkot. The college was the first attempt of its kind to implant ''manly tone and corporate spirit'' of the English public school among native aristocracy. The paper examines the curriculum and education system of the college in order to understand the limits and success of education and character reform under colonialism.