Establishment of Fort William College

Background. Wellesley's approach to administration differed from his predecessor Lord Cornwallis, who held that honest administration of British India by the company's servants required adequate salaries. Wellesley instead believed honesty could be ensured through adequate training and education, combining efficiency with honesty.

Founding and Purpose. Fort William College, also known as the College of Fort William, was founded on 18 August 1800 by Lord Wellesley, then Governor-General of British India, within the Fort William complex in Calcutta. Its original intention was to serve as a training ground for future European administrators, and it aimed at training British officials in Indian languages.

Opposition and Compromise. Wellesley initially intended the institution to be the "Oxford of the East", but the idea was scaled down to a school for Indian languages after a long tussle with the Court of Directors of the East India Company, led by Charles Grant, who had threatened to close the college since its creation had not been authorized. The Court was never in favor of a training college in Calcutta, and the college consequently suffered a persistent lack of funds.

Intellectual Significance. The establishment of the Calcutta Madrassa in 1781, the Asiatic Society in 1784, and Fort William College in 1800 completed the first phase of Kolkata's emergence as an intellectual centre. The college's work in training officials in Indian languages fostered the development of languages such as Bengali and Urdu, and its teachers contributed enormously to the development of Indian languages and literature.