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Macaulay
1. On Indian education:
•After the passing of the Government of India Act 1833.
•Macaulay was appointed as the first Law Member of the Governor-General's
Council.
•He went to India in 1834. Serving on the Supreme Council of India between 1834
and 1838 .
•he was instrumental in creating the foundations of bilingual colonial India, by
convincing the Governor-General to adopt English as the medium of instruction in
higher education.
•from the sixth year of schooling onwards, rather than Sanskrit or Persian then used
in the institutions supported by
the East India Company.
•By doing so, Macaulay wanted to
"educate a people who cannot at
present be educated by means of
their mother tongue”
2. On Indian education:
• and thus, by incorporating English. he sought to "enrich" the Indian
languages so "that they could become vehicles for European scientific,
historical, and literary expression“
• Macaulay's preference for the English language was based on his view of
the local languages as "poor and rude" and on his belief that the body of
writing available in Sanskrit and Arabic was no match for the scholarship
available in English.
• He famously stated in his "Minute on Indian Education" (1835): "all the
historical information which has been collected from all the books written
in Sanskrit language is less valuable than what may be found in the most
paltry abridgments used at preparatory schools in England."
