University of Calcutta established

Background. The establishment of the University of Calcutta was driven by the Wood's Despatch, sent by the Court of Directors of the East India Company in July 1854. This dispatch instructed the Governor General of India to create universities in Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay. Prior to this, Mouat, the education secretary, had proposed a university in Calcutta modeled after London University.

Establishment. The Calcutta University Act came into force on 24 January 1857, formally creating the institution. A 41-member Senate was formed as the policy-making body. The university was located in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, and became the oldest multidisciplinary university in the Indian Subcontinent and Southeast Asian Region.

Jurisdiction. When the university was first established, it had a jurisdiction extending from Kabul to Rangoon and Ceylon, the largest of any Indian university. The Indian Universities Act of 1904 later curtailed the university's control, for the first time, to Bengal (which included Orissa and Bihar), Assam and Burma provinces.

Academic Pioneering. Calcutta University was the first university east of Suez to teach European classics, English literature, European and Indian philosophy, and Occidental and Oriental history. This academic mandate defined its early educational scope, distinguishing it from other contemporary institutions in the region.