In 1837 the Act of XXIX,1837 was passed by the President of the Council of India, which gave the governor-general the power to dispense with any regulations of the Bengal Code requiring the use of Persian for judicial and revenue proceedings and to prescribe any other language and script as a replacement.
[11] Early protests came from the American Baptist Missionaries and the educated Assamese elite section, against the language policy of the government.
Primarily intended for the propagation of Christianity, the Orunodoi, which was published for two decades, contained informative knowledge of science, history, geography and certain regional and national news and views.
[13] In February 1874, the government revised its earlier language policy and the Commissioner stated that in the primary schools, Assamese rather than Bengali should be the sole medium of instruction.
Despite the Chief Commissioner's assurance that Assamese would not be supplanted, Bengali continued to be the medium in the middle grades until the late 19th century.
[14] Vigorous protests were made by the Assamese people against the implementation of Bengali as a medium in the middle and high schools of Assam.
On March 28, 1903, the Chief Commissioner stated that students in the Assamese-speaking district of Kamrup were to be taught in Assamese.
The establishment of Cotton University and Earle Law College can be attributed to the efforts of Manik Chandra Baruah.
In his concluding note, however, Mellitus stated that the imparting of education in Assamese instead of in Bengali was being done at the cost of efficiency.