East India Company recruits required to learn an Indian language

Background. The East India Company founded a college in 1806 to train "writers" for its service. Initially located in Hertford Castle, the institution moved to purpose-built premises at Hertford Heath in 1809. This college provided general and vocational education for young men nominated by directors for overseas civil service positions, establishing a formal training pipeline for Company administrators.

Oriental Department and Later ICS Study. Recruits at the East India Company College received vocational education. The Oriental Department included assistants such as Maulavi Abdal Aly and Maulavi Mirza Khedel; the significance of these appointments for language instruction is an interpretation, since the source lists names and dates only. Later, under the Indian Civil Service, candidates spent time at universities including Oxford, Cambridge, London colleges, and Trinity College Dublin, where they studied Indian law and learned the language of their assigned province.

Legacy and Transition. The East India Company College closed in 1858, and in 1862 its buildings reopened as a public school. From 1858, after the demise of the East India Company's rule in India, the British civil service took on the Company's administrative responsibilities. Candidates for the Indian Civil Service studied the law and institutions of India and learned the language of the province to which they had been assigned.