Apart from this, the Society suggested to the Senate of the Calcutta University that “the standard prescribed for the University examination be adopted for the Vernacular examination and science be taught in Urdu or Hindee.” Thus, the Society made a meaningful contribution in the diffusion of modern scientific ideas, despite the step-motherly treatment of the Education department, which unjustly rejected the Society's publications to make room for their own book.

In the nineteenth century, it was really a Herculean task to advocate the cause of education based on reason and scientific vision. In addition, such scientific institutions as the Delhi College, the Aligarh Scientific Society and the Bihar Scientific Society were not established merely to impart modern scientific education but to emphasise the need for a socio-cultural change in contemporary Indian society. For this, men like Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Hali, Master Ram Chandra, Imdad Ali and others had to face virulent criticism and opposition from the more orthodox who included the leading “ulemas” and “moulvis” of the country.

The Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS)

In Victorian England, the Royal Institution of London served as a scientific home for a host of scientists like Davy, Faraday, John Tyndall, and Huxley and, after Faraday's death, James Dewar. It was also a place for visiting scholars who spent short periods as workers in its laboratory. The Royal Institution of London was one of the important components of the institutional infrastructure for science in Victorian England. On the other hand, Calcutta had no such institution during the nineteenth century. Thus, even while science evoked interest in the capital of British India, there was not yet an institutional ambience that would induce Indians to practise science.

The reputation and character of the Royal Institution of London had, however, secured the imagination of at least Dr. Mahendra Lal Sircar. Sircar was born in the same year (1835) in which Rammohun died. He was patently a legatee of the new learning. He studied at Hindu College. Later, he entered Calcutta Medical College in 1855, which had established a formidable course of studies in the sciences. Sircar truly became the torch-bearer of the spread of scientific education after the demise of Rammohun.