📄 Abstract
This paper examines the growth, structure and character of the education system in the Central Karnataka region — comprising the present-day districts of Chitradurga, Ballari (Bellary) and Tumkuru (Tumkur) — during the colonial period, roughly from the early nineteenth century to Indian independence in 1947. The region's colonial experience was administratively divided: Ballari formed part of the Madras Presidency and was governed directly by the East India Company and later the British Crown, whereas Chitradurga and Tumkuru lay within the princely State of Mysore, which retained indigenous Wodeyar rule under British paramountcy (except for the period of direct Commission administration between 1831 and 1881). This administrative divergence produced two overlapping but distinct educational trajectories that nonetheless shared common colonial-era features: the survival and gradual decline of indigenous vernacular schools (chatrasalas and village pathashalas), the introduction of Anglo-vernacular and English-medium instruction, the expansion of missionary education, the slow and uneven spread of schooling to rural areas, women and depressed classes, and the eventual emergence of a modern departmental system of public instruction. Drawing on district gazetteers, missionary records, administrative reports and secondary historical scholarship, the study traces the pre-colonial base of indigenous learning, the impact of Munro's 1822 survey and the Bellary Collector's report of 1823, the influence of Macaulay's Minute of 1835 and Wood's Despatch of 1854, the reforms following the Hunter Commission of 1882, and developments under the Mysore Department of Public Instruction after the Rendition of 1881. It concludes that colonial education in Central Karnataka, while introducing English learning, printed textbooks, teacher training and institutional structures that laid the foundation of the modern school system, remained urban-centred, socially uneven and slow to reach the rural cultivator, artisan and lower-caste communities of the region.
🏷️ Keywords
📚 How to Cite:
Dr. Karekannappala Satisha, Thimmappa R , EDUCATION SYSTEM IN CENTRAL KARNATAKA DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD: A HISTORICAL STUDY , Volume 12 , Issue 8, August 2026, International Journal of Global Economic Light (JGEL) , Pages: 31 - 35 ,