Read the following passage and answer the following question :

India has a long and venerable history in the field of higher education. In ancient times, the country was known to have been home to the oldest formal universities in world. These ancient universities were rich with library of contemporary reading materials like manuscripts. The nature of higher education in ancient India was considered as religious. The basic religions were Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. Religion based education in ancient India had a outstanding role in creating, transforming and transmitting knowledge to the people in society. The more striking of these ancient universities were Takshashila (Now in Pakistan), Nalanda (in the modern state of Bihar) and Ujjaini (in modern Madhya Pradesh). These were in the early times of Indian Civilization and attracted students from all parts of India, Central Asia, China and South East Asia. The Hindu Buddhist University of Takshashila, the oldest one, was probably established in 6th century BC. The role of Takshashila as a knowledge centre grew stronger day by day for nurturing students. Unfortunately, Takshashila University was destroyed by the White Huns (Ephthalites) around 460 AD. In 1193, Nalanda University and its library with 9 million manuscripts was sacked and burnt and totally destroyed by Bakhtiyar Khilji. This event not only ended the University, but was also followed by a rapid decline in the practice of Buddhism in India. In 1235, Sultan Iltutmish completely destroyed Ujjaini, a major knowledge centre for Mathematics, Literature, Philosophy and Astronomy. History of higher education in India and its library system had thus begun its journey quite with a bang, which had to face temporary hindrance in the form of outside invasion. It is significant that at exactly the same time, half way across the world, Oxford University was being established. The libraries of Institutions of higher education are recognised as a most important agency of social change involved in the Human Resource Development of the Country. The socio historical journey of higher education has been started with an ancient system of education in the Vedic period.

In pre British days Hindus and Muslims were educated through Patthsala and Madrassa respectively. The ideas and pedagogical methods of education during the colonial period from 1757 to 1947, were contested terrain. The commercial British East India Company ruled parts of India from 1764 to 1858. In 18th century a few company officials became Scholars of Sanskrit, Persian and Tamil and promoted 'Oriental' learning which was classical, devotic learning in indigenous languages. However, they were outnumbered by Anglicists, those who denegrated 'Oriental' learning and advocated the introduction of institutions of western learning based upon the British curriculum with English as the medium of instruction. By the early 19th century, when English was made the official language of Government business, British policy promoted a cheap, frickle-down model for colonial education. When the British crown abolished company rule in 1858, Government universities existed at Bombay (Mumbai), Calcutta (Kolkata), and Madras (Chennai); about two thousand students studied at thirteen government colleges in all of British India, and another 30,000 students were in Government Secondary Schools.