In 1816, Joshua Marshman published a small pamphlet called 'Hints relative to native schools, together with the outline of an institution for their extension and management'. It contained a programme for national compulsory education, no less, in which peasant children, of both sexes, would learn to read and write with a vocabulary of 4,000 words. They would also have simple arithmetic and later become conversant with astronomy, geography, natural philosophy, mineralogy and chemistry. This was in a city of half a million, containing educational places for 4,180 Indian children. ()