Wood's despatch

Wood's Despatch
Sir Charles Wood, G.C.B., 1st Viscount Halifax (1800-1885)
Created	19 July 1854
Commissioned by	President of the Board of Control of India
Author(s)	Sir Charles Wood
Media type	Communiqué
Subject	Education
Purpose	To hasten the development of education in British India
Full text
The Despatch of 1854, on General Education in India at Wikisource

Wood's despatch is the informal name for a formal despatch that was sent by Sir Charles Wood, the President of the Board of Control of the British East India Company to Lord Dalhousie, the Governor-General of India. Wood's communique suggested a major shift to popularising the use of English within India. As for the language of instruction, Wood recommended that primary schools adopt vernacular languages, for secondary schools to adopt both English and vernacular languages and for colleges to adopt English.

The letter played an important role in spreading English-language learning and female education in British India. One of the most favourable steps taken was to create an English-speaking class among the Indian people to be used as a workforce in the company's administration. Vocational and women's education also became more heavily emphasised.^[1]

This period of time in the British Raj was part of a final phase in which the British government administration brought social reforms to India. The governing policies later tended to become more reactionary, notably in the wake of major social and political unrest surrounding the Indian Rebellion of 1857.^[2]