Education in the ‘Sanskarnagari’: Baroda, Provincial Capital of a ‘Progressive’ Princely State in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century

Abstract

Scholarship on education in the cities of the former ‘princely states’ remains largely outside the scholarly archive in India, with colonial and nationalist narratives dominating the historiography of education. These states, numbering more than 500 at the time of Indian independence in 1947, enjoyed relative autonomy from the colonial government, and some rulers managed to undertake significant social and educational reforms in their states. This paper explores education in the city of Baroda, the capital of one of colonial India’s foremost princely states in terms of economic wealth and political importance. Wide-ranging reforms initiated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century saw Baroda emerge as a city associated with a vibrant cosmopolitanism and an important centre of arts and education, giving it the epithet of ‘Sanskarnagari’, or city of culture.