INVC,,
Delhi,,,
A Book Exhibition in Persian, Arabic and English from the Fort William College Collection began here today. The Exhibition is being organized by National Archives of India in collaboration with Iran Culture Centre. The College of Fort William was founded in 1800 by Marquess of Wellesley at Calcutta to commemorate the decisive British victory over Tipu Sultan at Seringapatam. The college was a centre of training and general education for the Company’s young civil servants, though it had provision for the admission of the junior military servants as well. Under Regulations passed on 10 July 1800, the Governor-General was the patron and visitor of the college, and the members of the supreme council, Judges of the Sadr Diwani Adalat and the Sadr Nizamat Adalat were to be its governors. The provost of the college was always to be a clergyman of the Church of England. The first provost and the Vice-Provost were Rev. David Brown and Rev. Clauddis Buchanan repectively. Some of the first professors and Teachers of the college were: Professors Hindustani Lanugage: John Gilchrist, Laws and Regulations: George Hilaro Barlow, Greek, Latin and English: Rev. Clauddius Buchanan, Sanaskrit and Hindu Law: Henry Thomas Colebrooke, Persian Language and Literature : Neil Benjamin Edmonstone and Francis Gladwin, Arabic John Baillie, Teachers: Modern Europen Lanuages: Du Plessy, Sanskrit and Bengali Rev. William Carey, Tamil : Rev. J. Peozold, Hindustani : In course of time, the college turned into an important place of oriental studies where both the British and Indian scholars worked together on a variety of philological researches to help modernise different Indian languages. Since the court of Directors always regarded this institution as an expensive experiment, it suffered from financial strains, especially after Marquess of Wellesley returned to home in the early months of 1806. Inspite of this conflict between the administrative and scholarly interests, the college could manage to continue as an educational institution for about thirty years. It functioned as a centre of examinations for the Company’s civil servants for another two decades, until its final closure on 24 January 1854. Although, the college was closed but in the course of its short span of active existence, it did succeed in giving a new direction to the Civil Service, besides enlarging the scope for interaction between the Eastern and Western Cultures. The rich and unique collection of manuscripts and books of Fort Wlliam College began to be dismembered soon after the cessation of the college as an educational institution. In the process of dispersal Asiatic Society of Bengal received the most of the books and manuscripts belonging to oriental section of the library and the remaining books and manuscripts were given away to the Imperial Library (National Library, Kolkatta), Imperial Record Department (National Archives of India). This distribution took place sometime during the first quarter of the 20th Century. The part available in National Archives of India comprise of 742 rare books and 199 manuscripts which are useful work on Religion, Language, Literature, History, Medicine, Animal Husbandry, Astrology, Travelogues, Geography, Biography and on some topics of general interest. The exhibition will be on display till 19 January 2011 at India International Centre Annexe. 
