G. W.

Leitner and the Hindi-Urdu language question in the context of the

Hungarian language reform

G.W. Leitner was one of the numerous Central-European employees of the British
Empire who contributed to the stabilization of the Empire in India. He was born in
Pest in 1840, he left Hungary with his father who was a doctor as a child and studied
in Turkey and Malta to be employed as an interpreter in the Crimean war in 1855. He
studied in King’s College, London to be employed as a teacher in the College and
later be invited to India in Lahore.1 Today he may be remembered mainly for coining
the term Kaiser-I-Hind at the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1877. 2
In this paper I’ll sketch out his remarkable role in setting up the University of Punjab
and his contribution to the Hindi-Urdu language issue.

This paper attempts to examine Leitner's activities in India (1864-1886) from the
point of view of ideas of Hungarian, Hindi and Urdu language reforms. Leitner as the
principal of Government College Lahore founded an association, Anjuman-I-Punjab
for the discussion of literature and science and the collection of ancient manuscripts.
He also founded an Arabic journal for Maulvis and a Sanskrit journal for Pandits to
introduce European terms of criticism.3
On the basis of European experiences Leitner advocated the adoption of vernacular
languages as the medium of education. But his struggle for the vernaculars as the
medium of education at all levels was doomed to death by the dynamics of
development and modernization. The forces which opposed Leitner's solution for the
language problem were influential in preparing the ground for the Indian National
Congress and what Leitner defined as a national cause became identified as a
program supporting the policy of the colonial Government.

There were similar efforts at the level of primary education in the North Western
Provinces earlier. Leitner wanted to implement this further and planned to introduce
the vernaculars at the university level. He made the first initiatives in the 1860s. His
plan was to make Punjab University the center of academic activities in India raising
it into a oriental university which would bring out publications and critical editions of
oriental manuscripts. He was sourly disappointed when his plans fell through and
Punjab University was raised to the level of a university with the medium of English
in 1882.

1
Leitner G.Vilmos, in: Magyarország és a Nagyvilág [Hungary and the world], weekly magazine in
Hungarian, vol.XI, issue 48, 29.November 1874.
2
Bernard S. Cohn, Representing authority in Victorian India, in: The Invention of Tradition, ed. Eric
Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger,Cambridge University Press, 1993, pp.165-209.
3
G.W. Leitner, A History of Indigenious Education in the Punjab since Annexation and in 1882.
Language Department Punjab, 1883.Reprint Patiala 1970, pp. I-VIII.

1
Leitner's activities coincide with the construction and crystallisation of the cultural
identities of the three main communities in the Punjab. The evolution of the Muslim,
Sikh and Hindu communities in the second half of the nineteenth century was linked
to the issue of the language, the Hindi -Urdu controversy, the development of Indian
journalism, and the preparatory years of the formation of the Indian National
Congress. While his opponents in the Punjab University debate looked at Leitner as
an advocate of the position of the British Government my paper argues that Leitner
was convinced of the cause of vernacular education on the basis of his European
experiences and tried to establish the system. But he was struggling in an
increasingly inimical surrounding and he was driven into conservative positions,
which finally also isolated him from his possible allies. His situation in the British
administrative system was also fragile.

My paper falls into two parts. First I would like to summarize the idea of language
reform, the conscious, concentrated effort of improving and developing a language
with reference to the Hungarian language reform and the first phase of Hindi
language reform and language debates which were simultaneous with Leitner's
activities in Lahore. In the second part of my paper I would like to deal with Leitner's
proposals about the vernacular university and the various responses.

Leitner was influenced by Hungarian and German notions of linguistic nationalism.

His participation in the debates about the use of vernacular languages was
motivated by the Central-European, Hungarian–Austrian experiences and the
solutions which emerged in Europe. This was also possible because Hungary in the
Austrian Empire displayed a similar multiplicity of languages and cultures as many
parts of India in the British Empire. Among Hungary's inhabitants in the 18-19th
centuries apart from Hungarians there were Slovaks, Croats, Germans, Romanians,
Serbs and Ukrainians.

It could be said that in Hungary the entry to the community was through language.
Community and cultural movements in Hungary and in the Habsburg Monarchy were
described4 in the following way:

1. The evolution of a community seen as dependent on language and literature,

2. The process of cultural transition is emphasized with an emphasis of the

possible positive effect of interference,

4
László Deme: A XIX. Század első felének harcai a nemzeti nyelvért [Struggles of the first part of the
nineteenth century for the national language], in: Nyelvünk a Reformkorban [Our language in the Age
of Reform] edited by Dezső Pais, Budapest, 1955, pp. 33-164.

2
3. An optimistic vision about the future of the community provided interference
and it takes care of the negative effects of modernity.

In India in the second half of the nineteen century religion and language gradually
became important in response to Christianity, propagated by the British. The role of
religion is a major difference between the Hungarian and the Indian approach. The
crystallization of the three communities (the Muslim majority community, the Sikh
community and the Hindu Community) also took shape in the Punjab on the lines of
religion and language even though community along ‘jati’ and ‘beradri' association
were considered stronger5 even in the twentieth century, These trends grew out of
the context of British rule as a response to the British interpretation of society,
religion and concern over the state. The process started after the Annexation of the
Punjab in 1849 fifteen years before Leitner arrived but it took off in a big way only in
the 1860s when the forces of change generated forces of defence and new
consciousness. In the new consciousness religion and language had a very different
place.

The new consciousness about religion was. important in shaping the three
communities. There was the need to formulate the basic teachings of the religion in a
book containing the basic tenets of the faith. What the Old and New Testaments
contain for the Christians, the Guru Granth Saheb was for the Sikhs and the Koran
for Mohammedans. The Satyarth Prakash composed by Dayanand Saraswati
became the Bible of the Arya Samaj, and an article of faith in the new Hindu
consciousness in the Punjab.6

National and linguistic consciousness in India from the 1860s was often articulated in
the form of the community. Leitner himself contributed to the interpretation of the
cultural identity of Muslims and other communities in the Punjab separating Urdu,
Hindi and Punjabi on the basis of religion.

Leitner associated Arabic with the Muslim and Sanskrit with the Hindu community.
One of the aims of the "oriental movement" initiated by the education Leitner
advocated is described thus in the Preface and Summary in Leitner's History of
Indigenous Education7 in the Punjab:

"The revival of the study of the Classical languages of India–Arabic for the
Muhammedans, and Sanskrit for the Hindus; thus showing the respect felt by
5
Prakash Tandon, Punjabi Saga (1857-1987), Delhi, 1988. pp. 78-79
6
Kenneth W.Jones, Arya Dharm, Hindu Consciousness in 19th –century Punjab, Berkeley, 1976.
Reprint, Manohar, 2006, pp.30-66.
7
G.W.Leitner, History of Indegenous Education in the Punjab since Annexation and in 1882, Reprint
Patiala, 1970.p.VI.

3
 Enlightened Europeans for what the natives of India consider their highest
and most sacred literature, without a knowledge of which it was felt that no
real hold upon their mind can be obtained by a reformer."

For a language to become the vehicle of scientific, literary and political thought it
needs to have the basic vocabulary and structures which can reflect modem thought.
A modem language as the medium of journalism and administration can develop
only along with the medium of education. This understanding was inherent in
Leitner's efforts to introduce boundaries emphasizing the territorial division between
the dialects: some were closer to the standard and increased their status, others did
not.8
Press
In the period 1790-1844 the infrastructure of Hungarian press was created and the
number of newspapers, monthlies increased. After 1810, a temporary interval after
the Jacobine Uprising, the most important debates concerning economics, culture
and aesthetics took place in these journals, like Magyar Museum, Élet es Literatura,
Orpheus, Urania, Tudományos Gyüjtemény, Erdélyi Muzeum etc.9

In India press started in the first half of the century with Bombay Samachar, Jam-e-
jamshed, Rast Goftar in Bombay and Sambaud Kamudi in Bengali but it really took
root only in the 1860s. Urdu journals were brought out in Aligarh and Lucknow (like,
the Aligarh Institute Gazette, Tahzib al-Akhlaq, [The Social Reformer] and Avadh
Akhbar). At the same time the powerful process of the renewal of Hindi language,
the new adoption of khari boli hindi had started and this was reflected in Bharatendu
Harischandra's Kaviyachansudha, Harischandrika Balkrsna Bhatt's Hindi Pradip
etc.10

The vernacular Press Act of 1878 was directed against Indian language newspapers.
The Act provided for the confiscation of the property (printing .press, paper and other
printing material) if the Government believed that the Press was publishing seditious
material. There were great demonstrations organized on this issue. The Tribune in
Lahore in 1881 at the time of its foundations also protested against the Act.

In the Punjab printing presses were established in Lahore, Amritsar, Multan,

Gujranwala and Sialkot. The publications were linked to cultural-religious renewal.
The Akhbar-I-Anjuman-i Punjab was the Urdu monthly of the Punjabi Anjuman which
had English, Gurmukhi and Hindi editions. The Arya Magazine and Delhi Upkarak
were linked to the explication of religious Ideas in Hindi by Dayanand Saraswati. The

8
Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, London, 1981. pp.37-46.
9
Kókay György, Buzinkay Géza, Murányi Gábor, A magyar sajtó története, Budapest, 1994.pp.49-58.
10
Aacharya Ramchandra Shukla, Hindi sahitya ka itihas,nagripracharini sabha, Varanasi, 2034, p.322.

4
rules of the Arya Samaj put its members under the obligation to learn Hindi or
Sanskrit.

After the 1810s the Hungarian language reform was influenced by those currents of
German philosophy which could be connected to Romanticism. They connected
specificity of language to national character (Herder) , the state - a political entity
-was described as ancient as language (Fichte).

Language and National Consciousness, Language and Identity

In India the discovery of the Indo-European language family by William Jones and
Colebrooke had a great influence in the national consciousness. Friedrich Schlegel
in About the Language and Wisdom of Indians used biological metaphors of tree,
twigs, leaves to describe linguistic relationship and suggested that languages should
be investigated with the methods of comparative anatomy. The Arya connection, the
theory of Aryavarta and golden age in Indian history gave glory to Hindu national
consciousness.

In Hungary the issue of language, economic and political development and the
destiny of the nation were linked to each other in Count István Széchenyi’s writings
and after the Romantic turn the literary imagination veered around the symbols of the
rebirth of the nation or its death, like in Ferenc Kölcsey’s Hymn and his essays.11 It
turned to Herder's comparison of the four epochs of languages, childhood, youth,
adulthood and old age and filled the issue of language with emotional intensity. In
India the contrast between the Aryan golden age and present decline was
emphasized in the beginning of the nineteenth century. The Hindi movement which
took off in the l860s invoked the Indian past and claimed that the interest of the
majority in Northern India is the replacement of Urdu with Hindi. 12 Raja Babu Shiva
Prasad, one of the moderates of the Hindi national movement asked for the
replacement of Persian script with Hindi and wrote in a Memorandum:

"When the Muhameddans took possession of India, they found Hindi the
language of the country , and the same character the medium through which
all business was carried on…Yet this Persian did not become the language of
the millions; beyond towns and townspeople or ‘the upper ten thousand ‘
Persian was seldom studied …. I pray that Persian letters may be driven out

11
"The Hungarian looks West, and then looks back to the East with dismal eyes; he is an isolated,
brotherless branch of his race" Vörösmarty Mihály, Zrinyi in Összes Költeményei, Budapest, 1963, pp.
163-166.;"Bless the Magyar, Lord we pray,Nor in bounty fail him, Shield him in the bloody fray,When
his foes assail him." Ferenc Kölcsey, Hymnus, Nemzeti Hagyományok, Parainesis, edited by Zoltán
G.Szabó, PannonKlett Budapest, 1997, pp.25-28.
12
Vasudha Dalmia, The Nationalization of Hindu Tradition, Bharatendu Harischandra and Nineteenth-
Century Banaras, Delhi, 1999.p.195.

5
 of the Courts as the language has been, and that Hindi may be substituted for
them.”

The problem of Hindi language in India was politicized and it became a question of
survival for Hindu identity. The British Government considered Hindi
underdeveloped, and the supporters of the Hindi movement failed to arrive at any
definite result throughout the seventies.13 Expectations rose when in 1882 the
Government decided to take up the issue through the Hunter Commission Report.
Leitner was an appointed member of the Commission. Bharatendu Harischandra
referring to the ignorance of people in public matters said:

"To remove this evil, the best remedy would be to make primary education
compulsory in India as it is in England and other European countries, to make
the language of the court the language used by the people, and to introduce
into the court papers the character which the majority of the people can read.
The character in use in primary schools of these provinces is, with slight
exceptions, entirely Hindi. .."

Bharatendu admitted that the vernacular of the province varied from place to place,
village to village and the variations were enormous according to the "caste,
birthplace and attainments".

Another prominent person in the education Commission was Sir Sayyid Ahmed
Khan, the founder of the Muhammedan Anglo-Oriental College. In the Hindi-Urdu
debate he came out with a different idea. He related that after in his initial years he
supported higher education in Hindi, (in 1867 Sir Sayyid planned to establish a
College with teaching in the vernacular) but that he now believed that English must
become the language of scholarship.14 In Urdu, it was impossible to write without
exaggeration, to separate metaphor from reality. The concepts of history, philosophy,
logic, natural science had to be taught through English. He alluded to Maucalay’s
Minute when he spoke about the aims of the Muhammedan Anglo-Oriental College:

"to form a class of persons, Muhammedan in religion, Indian in blood and

colour, but English in tastes, in opinions and in intellect."

As against these opinions Leitner maintained throughout his stay in India , that
English education produces a shallow knowledge of literature and language, and
rude and conceited manners in oriental youth. He similarly to earlier Indian critics of

13
Bharatendu samagra,Varanasi,2000.
14
David Lelyveld, Aligarh’s First Generation, Muslim Solidarity in British India,OUP,Delhi 1996.p.207.

6
English education15 described it as a "shallow system of office hunters" which
destroys "the religious feeling" of a genuine civilization. 16 He maintained this opinion
after the Education Commission. It is significant that Leitner opposed the policy of
the Government yet he used arguments against English educated Indians which
were in consonance with the British distrust in the English educated who "were using
their education to write seditious papers." (Lord Lytton).

The Education Commission of 1882 did not finally pass a resolution. The supporters
of Hindi recognized the fact that they needed greater organization to carry through
their cause. In the later years of the century the Nagari Pracharini Sabha carried
forward the organization of the Hindi language while the cause of Urdu was taken up
by the Anjuman Taraqqi -e-Urdu.

II

Leitner's work in India can be divided from the point of view of chronology support
and opposition into three phases:

a. 1864-1873, this period includes : the foundation of the Punjabi Anjuman and
the Punjab University College in 1869

b. 1873-1877, this period includes :the first efforts to raise the Punjab University
College into a University and the Proclamation of Victoria in the Delhi Durbar
Government College

c. 1877 -1885, this period includes: further attempts for the establishment of the
university and the final disappointment.

These different phases of Leitner's activities coincide with the crystallisation of the
cultural identities of the three main communities in the Punjab (Muslims, Sikhs and
Hindus) linked to the issue of the language, the Hindi-Urdu controversy, the
development of Indian journalism, and the preparatory years of the formation of the
Indian National Congress. His opponents in the Punjab University debate, the editors
of the newspaper Tribune presented him as an advocate of the position of the

15
David Lelyveld, Aligarh’s First Generation, Muslim Solidarity in British India,OUP,Delhi 1996.pp.86-
87.
16
G.W. Leitner, History of Indigenous Education in The Punjab since Annexation and in 1882, 1882,
pp.8-9.

7
Government17, but his situation was delicate in the British administrative system
since he was not a member of the administrative system.

Leitner remembered in the 1880s (in the History of indigenous Education in the
Punjab since Annexation)18 the scene in English education at the time of his arrival
when in 1864 he was appointed as Principal of the Lahore Government College as
consisting:

"chiefly of instruction in mathematics and random or fragmentary selections of

more or less known authors. One of the courses contained portions of Dr
.Dixon's 'Life of Bacon,' Prescott's 'Essay on Chateaubriands's Essay on
Milton', Campbell's 'Rhetoric', and Roger's 'Italy' as a curriculum of English
students, in history, a few notices of the history of the Jews, and of Rome and
Greece"

Leitner found that subjects taught in English were based on irrelevant material.
Another factor Leitner criticized was that the education policy abolished "the
distinction between noblemen and commoners" alienating the landed gentry, the
‘petty Chiefs’, and the ‘Raises’ and therefore many of them withdrew their children
from the educational institutions and this diminished the credibility of public
education. This also undermined British interests who wanted to maintain the
hierarchy in Indian society and win over Indian princes and noblemen as the viceroy
Lord Lytton (1876-1880) asserted "to secure completely, and efficiently use, the
Indian aristocracy is... the most important problem now before us." 19

Soon after his arrival in 1865 Leitner initiated the Anjuman-I Punjab to revive oriental
learning and spread useful knowledge.20 The Anjuman-I Punjab embraced a wide
sphere of linguistic and cultural activities, establishing a Public Library and holding
lectures and inaugurated an “oriental movement” “the preservation and cataloguing
of ancient manuscripts”, “the foundation of National University in the Punjab”, “the
revival of the study of classical languages”, “the bringing of European science and
education generally within the reach of the masses”, raising “the standard of English
education”. The Lieutenant Governor (1865-1870) Sir Donald Macload patronized
the Anjuman-I Punjab. In 1872-73 the school was named Lahore Oriental College. It
was run by Punjab University College, established in 1869, which Leitner controlled
along with the Government College, Lahore. Leitner was determined to restore the
17
Ananda Prakash, A History of the Tribune, A Centenary Publication, Tribune Trust, Chandigarh,
1986, pp.18-19.
18
G.W.Leitner, History of Indegenous Education in the Punjab since Annexation and in 1882, Reprint
Patiala, 1970.pp.IV-V.
19
Bernard S. Cohn, Representing authority in Victorian India, in: The Invention of Tradition, ed. Eric
Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, Cambridge University Press, 1993, pp.165-209.
20
G.W.Leitner, History of Indegenous Education in the Punjab since Annexation and in 1882, Reprint
Patiala, 1970.pp.V-VI.

8
falling public reputation of the Oriental College by creating classes for ‘maulvies’,
‘pandits’ and ‘granthis’ for those whose parents had these hereditary professions. 21

In 1866 Leitner went on a tour through Zangskar, Ladak, and Kashmir, crossed the
Indus by boat and reached Ghilghit. 22 At this time the Dard tribes and Kashmir were
engaged in a war and apart from having to tackle a difficult terrain - he lost his
companion while crossing a stream - Leitner was constantly exposed to attacks by
the Kashmiri Maharaja’s sepoys. After reaching Lahore he took three months leave
when he wrote out the vocabulary and the grammatical structure of Dard languages.
The work he completed the mapping of the grammar and vocabulary of eleven
languages became the basis of his book The Languages and Races of Dardistan. In
the same volume he publishes the account of his excavation in 1870 and objects of
sculpture, which he called “Greaco-Buddhistic” a term which Leitner coined. In the
Vienna World Exhibition of 1873 Leitner presented a Yarkandi who could write
Devanagari to highlight the educational achievements of the British Government. He
also won a prize for his educational activities in the Vienna Exhibition. 23 These
exhibitions - World Fairs - were consciously constructed symbolic events for empires
which first started in London in the 1850s.
III
In the later period of his stay in India (1873-1885) Leitner showed more knowledge of
interpretation of symbolic-semiotic events than an understanding of the inner working
of British administration or the new forces emerging with Indian nationalism.

In 1872, 1875, 1876 and the years following Leitner was active in trying to have
Punjab University College raised to the level of University. He felt that the
achievements of the Punjabi Anjuman, the collection of Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian
manuscripts and the preparation of their catalogue was enough evidence of work
which would support him. But from 1873 the requests to make PUC a degree (B.A.
and M.A) conferring institution was rejected. The Education Proceedings in the N.A.I.
from this period show that it was rejected for three reasons:
1. The British Government was not prepared to spend on Indian education and
on the salary of teaching staff. The elaborate machinery of examination in one
more university was considered very expensive. This lack of will to invest in
education was later consistently pointed out by the nationalists.
2. In general the British Government disapproved of the use of vernacular in
higher education.

21
Nazer Singh, Notes on the Anjuman-i-Punjab, Aligarh Movement, Brahmo Samaj, Indian Association, Arya
Samaj and Singh Sabha in the Context of Colonial Education in the Punjab, 1865-1885, in The Punjab Past and
Present, Vol.XXVI-I, April 1992, pp.35-69.
22
G.W. Leitner, The Languages and Races of Dardistan, London 1876.
23
Extracts from Reports on the Vienna Universal Exhibition of 1873 Part III Presented to both Houses of
Parliament by Command of Her Majesty, Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty.
Report on Educational Appliances, by Mr Fussel, M.A. Her Majesy’s Inspector of Schools

9
3. Leitner and the English had different definitions the idea of a university.

Sir H. S. Maine who was considered a major scholar of Indian institutions 24, 1861
and E.C. Bailey in their notes in the N.A.I. added to these documents 25, were critical
of making universities teaching bodies and at the same time examining bodies. They
were also critical of other functions the university was planning to take on like
"patronage" to literature, even research work and suggested that these were
functions of literary societies.

The idea of the 'Oriental University' of Lahore included the idea of a research
institute within the university as a center of text editions according to Leither’s and
the Anjuman’s proposals. The basis of difference is entailed in the English and
German concepts of the university.

Immanuel Kant in The Conflict of the Faculties (1794-98) describes universities as

autonomous collectives of scholars where each faculty has its authentic way to
define truth and its independent rights. Similarly according to the Hungarian concept
of the university, the university as an institution contributes to the formation of the
many sided, cultured individuum and ongoing research were part of this. 26

Three arguments against the Punjab University were repeated again and again 27
“There are also three other objections to the establishment of local Universities, the
two latter of which are specially likely to be felt at Lahore-I mean the impolicy of
combining teaching with examining, the difficulty of finding suitable examiners, and
the difficulty also of maintaining a standard of examination equivalent to that exacted
in other Indian Universities. These objections were so forcibly set out in a note by Sir
Henry Maine when the proposal for a Punjab University was first mooted .”

The new applications submitted by the Senate of PUC or Leitner who was the
Registrar did very little to counter these arguments.

An important and controversial event was the Imperial Assemblage in 1877, the
formal proclamation of Queen Victoria as the Empress of India. It was arranged in
Delhi in the form of the Mughal Durbar. The Assemblage manifested definite forms of
British ideas about Indian society where banners were given to ninety of the leading
24
H.S.Maine, Village Communities in East and West, 1871.
25
Home Dept.Proceedings 1873 Education A April Nos.7-8.NAI Punjab University College E.C.B.
[Bailey ] “The very exiguous number of students in the university class is ignored , and the fact that
the bulk of these are paid highly for [in the form of scholarships] already is only glanced at to be
defended on motives of expediency which amount to an admission that the country is not prepared for
any extensive university teaching.And its claims to recognition as an university seem based upon
functions which are not those of an university at all, but rather of a literary and scientific society.”
26
Tamás Tóth, A napoleoni egyetemtől a humboldti egyetemig[From Napoleon’s University to
Humboldt’s University] Világosság[Light] monthly journal 1999/8-9 pp.66-89.
27
Home Dept Proceedings Aug 1877 Education No.42-52. Minute by E.C. Bayley.

10
Indian princes and chiefs with their coats of arms emblazoned. 28 Leitner who had an
excellent understanding of the semiotics of imperium and reign, made his
contribution to the function by inventing the Indian title for Queen Victoria Kaiser-I
Hind. In an article in 1876 Leitner explained that this title combined the imperial titles
of the Roman 'Ceasar', German 'Kaiser' and Russian 'Czar'. The Assemblage was
another occasion when Leitner tried to have the Punjab University established but
the Viceroy in his address simply assured the Punjabi Anjuman and Leitner of his
goodwill and left the issue at that.

In the latest part of his activities in India (1877-1885) Leitner ignored the forces
which became more active in the Punjab and allover India. This was connected with
the Vernacular Press Act of 1877, the rising national, linguistic and political
consciousness, the emigration of Bengali professionals, Brahma Samaj members to
Punjab and the growing influence of the Arya Samaj. With the passage of time the
Arya Samaj gained ground in the Punjab and the case of Hindi also gathered forces.
Bengalis in the Punjab sided with their Hindu coreligionists and supported Hindi. We
also saw that Sir Syed Khan had given up his plan of education in the Urdu medium
and switched to English. The proposal of raising Punjab University College into a
University and the University Act was about to come out when in February, 1881 a
weekly newspaper The Tribune started.29 The editor of the newspaper was Sitala
Chandra Mukherjee and it was financed by Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia. The
immediate aim of the newspaper was to counteract the establishment of the
university of Leitner's 'oriental' variety. The paper fought for liberal education in the
English medium. It expressed the opinion30 that

"English education is the greatest boon conferred by the English on this

country."
This expressed the fears of the Punjabi and Bengali intelligentsia that 'oriental'
education would be useless in preparing for government service or for the new
professions of law, medicine and journalism. In a series of articles on Punjab
Education The Tribune exposed all facts concerning the functioning of Punjab
University College.31 It also took up arguments against English education and refuted
them.
28
Bernard S. Cohn, Representing authority in Victorian India, in: The Invention of Tradition ed. by Eric
Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger, Cambridge, 1992, pp. 165-210.
29
Ananda Prakash, A History of the Tribune, A Centenary Publication, Tribune Trust, Chandigarh,
1986, pp.1-19.

30
The Tribune, August 13. 1881.

31
The Tribune, September 3. 1881. …We are not fully sure if the statement that the Secretary of State has
sanctioned the introduction of the bill is a mere rumour or not….Our objections were based on the following
ground-1 That the principles upon which the PUC proceeded were unsound

11
In September 1881 it was made clear that the University Bill would not be introduced
before winter and The Tribune announced meetings in every town of the Punjab to
record their protest. With signature campaigns The Tribune managed to change the
decision and the Punjab University was established as university with English
medium.

Here, I would like to sum up my personal impression about the files I found about
Leitner in the NAI. The earlier files show him as a restless talented man full of
energy. He often complains in his official applications for leave about sedentary
overwork. After his failure of the vernacular university Leitner became a disappointed
man. In the last years (1882-1886) applications for transfers into different post in
India or in Europe, application for larger pension witness his frustration and anger. 32
He was not a member of the Indian Administrative Service therefore different and
less advantageous rules applied to him. The correspondence on the documents, in
the NAI the responses of the British officials reveal that he was considered a 'difficult
man' .The civil servants handling his files knew his great ability, the service he did for
the British Empire but they shared the fear that he could cause damage in the
Education Department if he had stayed on. There was the wish to get rid of him. 33

During his stay in India Leitner found a wide variety of activities in research,
organization, expeditions which suited his temperament. His plan of the 'oriental'
university also fell through because he did not correctly estimate the forces he relied
on and did not see the transformation of social forces in the course of the twenty
years (1865-1885). The British opposed higher education in the vernaculars, and
were not ready to spend on a university which was not the university of their concept.
Leitner relied on the most feudal sections of society which extended support to him,
he ignored the English speaking elite Punjabis and Bengali Brahmos, and the
2 that it has failed to achieve the objects for which its establishment as a tentative measure was sanctioned in
1869
3 that it has failed us to give satisfaction in its working which was in open violation of ‘the satutes’ and often of
arbitrary nature and
4 that its Senate was composed of men who generally were unfit to discharge the duties entrusted to them and
there was no sufficient strong and enlightened public opinion by which its action could be properly
controlled…..”

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Home Dept Education No. 838 dated 29 July 1885.C.L.Tupper To the Secretary to the Govt of India,
Home Dept. provides a “List of papers connected with the proposals made by the Lieutanant-
Governor for a special pension in behalf of Dr.G.W. Leitner.
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"In a letter dated 21st July last, addressed to the Education Commission, I pointed out that Dr
Leitner's evidence consisted of an attack, carefully prepared during the two preceding months, on his
own Department, on the Educational officers of the Punjab Government, and to some extent on the
Government itself. This attack was directed against the operations of the Government during the last
quarter of the century and Dr. Leitner was relieved of all other work during the time that he devoted to
its preparation." Lieutenant-Colonel W.R.M.Holroyd, Director of Public Education Punjab

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emerging middle class which later started playing a more substantive role after the
creation of the Congress.

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