MACAULAY'S MINUTES

                                                                                  MACAULAY'S MINUTES

🔎WHO WAS LORD MACAULAY?

 ≻Thomas Babington better known as Lord Macaulay, is the man who brought the English language and   British education to India.

≻ He came to India in the year 1834 as the law member of the Governor General’s Executive Council and  was appointed as the President of the Committee of Public Instruction.

≻ He was entrusted to settle down the dispute between the East and the West. The dispute on how the  money (one lakh rupees) that was set apart “for the revival and promotion of literature, and the  encouragement of the learned natives of India, and for the introduction and promotion of a knowledge  of the sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories” should be resolved.

🔎ENGLISH EDUCATION ACT 1835

▪       Also known as the MACAULAY’S POISION

▪       It was a  clear proposal promoting English in Indian schools 

        English should be taught in place of Arabic, Sanskrit and Persian in colonial schools in India.

▪       His recommendations ::

                                    A. English as the medium of language in schools.

                                    B. Indians should be taught sciences and             Western literature.

      •     The result that he wanted : students should understand English in order to work as clerks in the offices of the British. Also “learned Indians” ( who have knowledge in English) should be placed as teachers in schools.

🔎WHAT WERE HIS ARGUMENTS?

▪       Indian languages are poor and can neither provide literacy nor scientific knowledge.

     Macaulay did a study on Sanskrit and Arabic as well as oriental literature. And said that even orientalists support his view that English is worth knowing than any other regional languages. One of the Orientalists even went on to comment that,

         “… a single shelf of a good European literature was worth the whole native

           Literature of Indian and Arabia.”

      The languages are poor. So, if people want to pursue higher studies, it can be done only in English. Hence, English is the language which is worth knowing.

• Orientalists are known for their poetry but it can never be compared to the Great European poetry. The superiority of Europeans is immeasurable. Macaulay stated that the literature of England is now more valuable than that of classical antiquity. There is a doubt that Sanskrit literature can be as valuable as that of Saxon and Norman.                                                                                                                                                                                                        
•  English is a universal language. It has ready access to all the vast intellectual wealth which all the wisest nations of the earth have created. English is the language spoken by the ruling class in India and many other colonies. English is going to become the language of commerce as well. Hence, English tongue is that which would be the most useful to our native subjects.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
•  There would be no one who would like to learn these dialects unless we (Britain) will pay him. But those who are willing to learn English are willing to pay us.

                          Arabic students in Madrasa receive stipends from the public of above 500 rupees per person, per month.  [This shows locals in India itself wanted to learn English rather than their regional languages.]

 ❓❓❓ So what are your thoughts about Macaulay and his Minutes?