Rammohun Roy, having grown up within a high-caste Hindu family, was able to attain an excellent British education, where he developed an interest in the literature of many teachings of various languages and Religions outside of his own Indian culture. At the age of 42 Rammohun Roy wrote a Letter to Lord Amherst where he describes his thoughts and feelings as to why he is in opposition of the British's upcoming preparations to open a school devoted to the teachings of Sanskrit and Hindu literature. Within the letter, Roy expresses to the governor-general of India, that there are positives and negatives for opening such a school.
Rammohun Roy states his opinion that opening a school of Hindu and Sanskrit literature would not be what India needs. However a school which is entirely devoted to the teachings of Hindu and Sanskrit would give the people who come from India a chance to get an education in their own culture, history and language. This would there by help and encourage more and more Indian people to be educated in the old way of life, and traditional thoughts, ideas, values, beliefs, teachings, stories and many other timeless products of a culture are not lost with the lack of education and schooling. If there were no schools that taught Sanskrit or Hindu literature the people from India would not be able to receive an education of their own language and the country would be sparsely populated with educated people, possibly resulting in a lowering of the wealth of India. For if there were no educated individuals then there would be no one to help India complete economically in a global economy.
However the argument against Roy would possibly pose an even greater detriment to India if it were not carried through. Roy states in his letter to The Governor-General �The Sanskrit language, so difficult that almost a lifetime is necessary for its acquisition, is well known to have been for ages a lamentable check to the diffusion of knowledge and the learning concealed under this almost impervious veil is falling from sufficient to reward the labor of acquiring it�. He states how the language is Sanskrit is so hard to learn it takes nearly one�s entire life to begin to understand it and yet it is sad that the knowledge that is spread from it is hidden by the attempt to learn the language. He stresses with this how important is would be to learn English instead. The language does not take an entire lifetime to learn, and can pass knowledge and information easily. Also If a school is built in which does not teach Hindu and Sanskrit, but instead, would educate the Indian people in the literature of the English, then the Indians would be exposed to many more subjects and teaching than if they were only taught their native language. The people of India would be able to ! gain knowledge in a larger variety of subjects, and expand their communication beyond only their country, but to the world. This would help to expose them to a world in which they would not have known about if they had not been given the opportunity to go to a school that taught more than one language.
However, if there was a school built in which Sanskrit, Hindu literature and English subjects would be taught, there would be a multitude of advantages for all of the individuals that would attend such a school. Each person would have the opportunity to take any course they wished or felt was important for them to learn. They would be exposed to courses that would have a large range of subjects to learn, not just limited to two or three subjects. The Indians would be able to get a great education and people with heritage from India and those from the English part of the world would be able to be exposed to the two worlds. Thus making the language and educational gap a little smaller than what would exist with a solely Hindu and Sanskrit literature school and a solely English school.
While Roy has a very good point in his letter to Load Amherst, Governor-General in Council, he fails to note the positive aspects of a Hindu and Sanskrit school. However the most logical solution would seem to be to build a school that taught Hindu, Sanskrit, and English, so an individual might better themselves by their choosing and what they feel they should do. The ability to have a larger array of education would allow the Indians of the subcontinent to be more educated in a variety of ways, instead of a limited arraignment of education by means of only one or two types of literature thus expanding their knowledge and helping the entire country prosper.