Styles of EDUCATION and LITERACY, old and new
	Handwritten books were rare and precious, and access to them was uncertain at best; palm leaves were often the medium of choice
	Handwritten manuscripts were error-prone and required frequent recopying; by the later 1800's, *print culture* was vigorously spreading in South Asia
	But well into the twentieth century, most bureaucratic documents were created and maintained, often multilingually, entirely by scribes
	Scribes of all kinds, katibs, and calligraphers were always in demand; *Islamic calligraphic traditions* were powerful and prestigious
	Simple local schools for boys had existed all over South Asia for many centuries, to teach basic literacy skills; *a useful account of some in the North*
	Glimpses of traditional Islamic schools (for boys) and educational settings
	Christian missionary and other social-welfare schools (for boys) thus had a tradition to build on
	Schools for girls and young women, however, were a genuine colonial innovation, with no real Indic or Islamic antecedents
	Starting in 1817 with Hindu College (later Presidency College) in Calcutta, western-style institutions began taking shape in Lahore, Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, and elsewhere (a British *report on education, 1887*)
*ALIGARH M.A.O.*	In 1878, Sir Sayyid's "Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College" joined their number

 

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