VARNAM

A blog on Indian History

The Story behind Macaulay's

Education Policy: Part 1
 by जयकृ णः | ജയ ൻ  August 13, 2007

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 Warren Hastings

Raima Sen, more popularly known as Moonmoon Sen’s daughter, recently gave
an insight into the word “modern upbringing”. She said that they didn’t do pujas
at home, spoke English not Bengali and most of her friends were Anglo-Indian.
If Thomas Macaulay were alive today, Raima Sen would be the kind of
enlightened native he would want to be working in the British Administration.

In 1834, there was a controversy in British India over the language to be used
for Indian higher education. On the one side there were the British Orientalists
who wanted to use Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic and on the other side there
were the Anglicists who had this Raima Sen type scorn for Oriental languages
and Indian culture and wanted to enforce English. Macaulay landed in India at
the height of this debate and soon published is famous Minute, which sealed
the case for the Anglicists. Macaulay thus became immortalized, with natives
who exhibit contempt for their culture being labeled Macaulay’s Children.

The signi cance of Macaulay’s Minute, the drama behind the decision and the
consequences of the decision can be understood better by taking a look at the
Orientalist-Anglicist controversy, the attitude of English towards Indian culture,

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 the role of Evangelicals in the decision making process and asking the
question: Who the heck was Charles Trevelyan?

India before Macaulay

Warren Hastings, the rst governor-general of India from 1773 to 1785 had a
respectful view of India and wanted the Englishmen to learn the language and
culture and blend in. Hastings found the Calcutta Madrassa for training
Muslims in Islamic Law and Jonathan Duncan found the Sanskrit College in
Benares for the preservation and cultivation of the Hindu laws, literature and
religion. In the College of Fort William in Calcutta, the employees of the East
India Company had to learn Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, six Indian vernaculars,
Hindu, Muslim and English law before being appointed as judges, o cials and
administrators. The college had the patronage of Orientalists like Sir William
Jones, best known for his observation that Sanskrit bore resemblance to Latin
and Greek and James Prinsep, who deciphered Asoka’s inscriptions.

Sir Alexander Johnston, an Orientalist who had mastered Tamil, Telugu and
Hindustani and had learned Hindu, Muslim and Buddhist customs had high
regard for India and Indians. He told the Parliament that India had been
governed for two thousand years by the natives and they were as competent

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 as Europeans.  He asserted that Hindus had made the same progress in logic
and metaphysics by 1500 BC, possessed laws superior to the Greek,  had
knowledge of the numerical system and devised astronomical tables of great
worth by 3000 BC.  The Orientalists were sure that a social change was
required in India and that change would come when Indian rediscovered the
roots of their civilization.

The Anglicists consisting of Holt Mackenzie and Charles Trevelyan (Thomas

Macaulay’s brother-in-law) argued that the aim of the British should not be to
teach Hindu learning, but useful learning and that Hindu and Muslim literature
contained only a small portion of any utility. The Orientalists countered that the
metaphysical sciences found in Sanskrit and Arabic were worthy of being
studied. As a compromise, new colleges for teaching Sanskrit, Arabic and
Persian were opened and along with the Oriental subjects, science courses
were also taught.

While this debate was going on between the Anglicists and Orientalists was
going on, economic, political and religious reasons worked in favor of the
Anglicists. In 1827, William Bentinck, whose previous avatar as the Governor of
Madras came to an end with the mutiny in Vellore, was sent as the Governor
General of India. This time his mission was to turn around the loss making

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 British East India company and one idea was to use more Indians in judicial
and administrative posts, reducing the burden on the English establishment.
Thus arose a need for a large number of Indians who could speak and
understand English. Bentinck also wanted to cut down on the translation of
English books into vernacular since it was more cost effective to supply
English books.

Even though the Anglicists and Orientalists disagreed on the language to be

used for higher learning, they agreed that it was in their interest to extend the
British political rule as much as possible. Sir Alexander Johnston, the
Orientalist who admired the Hindu logic and metaphysics wanted the British to
remain in India for a long time and his plan was to appoint Indians to high
positions, by which they would become more attached to the British and would
have a lot to lose by over throwing their rulers. Charles Trevelyan, the leader of
the Anglicist lobby, was sure in the 1830s that one day the natives would gain
independence, but through education they would be fearful of premature
independence and would hold on to the British.

Besides these economic and political factors, an important role was played by
the Evangelicals and we will look at that in Part two of this four part series.

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Related

Macaulay's Education Part 2: Macaulay's Education Part 3:

Religious Intolerance
Charles TrevelyanWhile
economic and political reasons
were factors for introducing
English education in India by
Macaulay's Education Part 4:
the British,  less mentioned is
The Consequences
August 13, 2007
August 15, 2007
In "History: India"
In "History: India"
The Minute
Thomas Macaulay Thomas
Macaulay arrived in India on
June 10, 1834, the same time
Charles Darwin sailed the
Paci c Ocean on HMS Beagle
August 14, 2007
In "History: India"

Posted in History: India •

Published by जयकृ णः | ജയ ൻ

View all posts by जयकृ णः | ജയ ൻ

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 Prev Next
Understanding anti-Hindusim Macaulay's Education Part 2: Religious
Intolerance

7 Replies to “The Story behind Macaulay's Education Policy: Part 1”

deepdowne
August 13, 2007 at 11:57 am

a valuable post indeed. thanks!

varnam
August 13, 2007 at 10:15 pm

Macaulay’s Education Part 2: Religious Intolerance

Charles TrevelyanWhile economic and political reasons were factors for
introducing English education in India by the British,  less mentioned is the
fact that most of the Anglicists were also Evangelicals who thought that the
arrival of Engl…

varnam
August 14, 2007 at 9:31 pm

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 Macaulay’s Education Part 3: The Minute
Thomas Macaulay Thomas Macaulay arrived in India on June 10, 1834, the
same time Charles Darwin sailed the Paci c Ocean on HMS Beagle and one
of his rst acts as the legal member of the education council was his…

Lucy, school teacher

August 28, 2007 at 4:39 am

The topic is very complicated. From one hand, people should keep their
culture as this is what makes us humans. From the other hand, in the age of
globalization, the culture differences tend to disappear, and it’s de nitely
good for everybody to know English. Not sure about teaching it to the
children as their rst language though…

Sandeep
July 22, 2013 at 12:15 am

“Warren Hastings, the rst governor-general of India from 1773 to 1785 had a
respectful view of India and wanted the Englishmen to learn the language
and culture and blend in. – See more at:
https://varnam.org/2007/08/the_story_behind_macaulays_edu/#sthash.SvJ
etx6M.dpuf”
Respectful & Warren hastings? Do you have any references for this?

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 jk
July 22, 2013 at 7:39 am

I think it was this book

Clive, John. 1973. “Indian Education: The Minute” and “Indian
Education: The Consequences”. Macaulay: The Shaping of the
Historian , 342–426. Alfred A. Knopf, New York.

SimplyHindu
November 21, 2016 at 5:38 am

His descendants still remain without knowing so

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