In the beginning of colonial period in India, many efforts, at both individual and collective level, were made to describe the scientific knowledge in Urdu language. In continuation of this tradition, we find the Thomason Civil Engineering College at Roorkee (Uttarakhand, India), where subjects of primary civil engineering were translated and compiled in Urdu language for the first time. The college was established in 1847 and had a series of textbooks in Urdu language for the native pupils. This presentation highlights the contributions of the College's native staff towards the describing of a bit new scientific discipline in Urdu. It also explores the policy of East India Company about education in the vernacular languages in India. 

Sajid Siddique Nizami is Assistant Professor at the Institute of Urdu Language and Literature, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan. He is an academic visitor at Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford nowadays and has interest in the research of the 18th and 19th century's Urdu literature, editing of the literary texts and research methodology. His ongoing research focuses on the "role of the Thomason Civil Engineering College, Roorkee to the enrichment of Urdu prose".