John Borthwick Gilchrist (1759–1841) contributed significantly to the Hindustani language education of civil servants of the East India Company. Despite many difficulties, he wrote many dictionaries and grammar books. Because of his linguistic achievements, he was appointed as a teacher at the Oriental Seminary since its inception to teach a course on Hindustani and Persian languages for civil servants. Gilchrist flourished at the Oriental Seminary, and this success led to the establishment of Fort William College (FWC). At FWC, established in Calcutta in 1800, he worked as a professor of the Hindustani language from 1800 to 1804. He supervised translation work by Indian scholars and published many books on Hindustani.

This paper concerns his personal history, research, and educational activities pertaining to the Hindustani language. His successors in the Hindustani department were unable to publish their work, and almost no reprinting was undertaken at FWC after his retirement. Although English replaced Indian languages as the administrative language of British India after a long controversy in the mid-nineteenth century, it is noteworthy that Gilchrist cooperated with the Governor-General in promoting ‘oriental’ education for junior civil servants. FWC could not have been established and maintained without Gilchrist’s efforts.