A Hindu Education: Early Years of the Banaras Hindu University (No OCR)

This book provides a comprehensive account of the Banaras Hindu University (BHU), India's first residential university and the result of Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya's efforts to establish a Hindu university in the country. This book not only discusses the origins and development of the BHU, but also the challenges and issues that the school faced. It studies Malaviya's efforts to introduce religious education in BHU—and even make it mandatory—and his response to Mahatma Gandhi's efforts to boycott the university. It also describes the lives of the students in the campus and its academic, intellectual, and cultural atmosphere. This book also considers the role and influence of the British in the development of Hindu education during the late colonial period and the importance of the university's location.

The volume aims at a critical assessment of one of the influential institutions of the late colonial era. By focusing on the history of Hindu education at Banaras Hindu University, a major university of British India between 1915 to 1947, the book explores the complex inter-relationships between religion, education, identity formation, resistance patterns, and how the university responded to these issues. The importance of the work lies in offering a new perspective on university education in colonial India and in its documentation of education as one of the important instruments of identity construction during colonial rule.

It situates the university in the larger context of a movement to foster Hindu identity in response to the colonial situation. The volume also studies the reform movement, and its important leaders like Annie Besant and Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, and their role not only in education but also in the revival of Hinduism. It re-examines the general thought of modern scholarship on religious nationalism, which is grounded in the assumption that nationalism thrives only in modern, secular cultures.

"What makes an individual or institution Hindu? What is a Hindu education? Can religious identity co-exist with modern western institutions? What is the role of religion and higher education in nationalism? A Hindu Education provides a comprehensive account of the nature of education at Banaras Hindu University (BHU), one of the most influential Indian institutions during the late colonial period."--BOOK JACKET Focusing on the history of Hindu education at Banaras Hindu University, a major university of British India between 1915 to 1947, this book explores the complex inter-relationships between religion, education, identity formation, and resistance patterns. It also shows how the university responded to these issues in the colonial situation