Why Macaulay Must Be Buried By 2035 | Opinion

The Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi, who has set the deadline of 2047 for the emergence of Viksit Bharat -- a fully developed and confident nation in every aspect of life -- has now given the people of Bharat a new task, to destroy the legacy of Thomas Bobbington Macaulay within the next ten years by 2025.

Mr Modi touched upon the harm done by Macaulay while speaking at an event in New Delhi recently and repeated it with much greater emphasis while unfurling the Dharma Dhwaj at Ayodhya on November 25.

Macaulay, as Director of Public Instruction, laid out a detailed plan in 1835 to promote English education and to destroy India's languages, culture and civilizational strengths. This was accepted by the British government, leading to the mushrooming of "Convent Schools" all over the country and the neglect of regional language schools.

Macaulay's thesis comprised the following assertions:

Sanskrit is a "useless" language and must be abandoned. Instead, Indians must be taught English as it was the language of a superior civilisation and the key to modern knowledge in science, history, philosophy, etc. Indian languages, he claimed, contained "neither literary nor scientific information" and that they were "poor and rude".

He claimed that after studying the literature available in Sanskrit and Arabic and other Indian languages, he had come to the conclusion that "a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia".

His contempt for Sanskrit comes through in this extraordinary assertion that all the historical information collected from all books written in Sanskrit is less valuable than what may be found in the most paltry abridgements used in primary schools in England. He said this was the case in every branch of knowledge.

He displayed his ignorance of Indian mathematics, literature, astronomy, medicine, history and geography when he claimed that school girls in England would burst into laughter if they heard of Indian astronomy. Obviously, he was clueless about the fact that Indians discovered Zero and India had phenomenal mathematicians and astronomers like Arya Bhatta and Bhaskaracharya when the British still lived in caves and hunted wild animals.

Arya Bhatta is known for his geometry, trigonometry and his exact calculation of the diameter of the Earth, the moon and the planets and the distances between them, over 1,500 years ago. He explained solar and lunar eclipses and exactly calculated the number of days in the year as 365. Bhaskaracharya was a brilliant mathematician, and his discoveries included Calculus and the elliptical orbit of planets, among many other things, over 900 years ago.

Only an ignorant fool like Macaulay could dismiss all this. Therefore, he claimed "we have to educate a people who cannot at present be educated by means of their mother-tongue". So, how does he propose to do it? He concludes that "the English tongue is that which would be the most useful to our native subjects".

Further, the promotion of English among the natives is needed to deepen the roots of the British Empire in India. Therefore, his final prescription: "We must form a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect". So, apart from the English language, he would ensure that Indians acquired English "tastes" and "morals".

The Governor-General, Lord William Bentinck, fully endorsed Macaulay's thesis and issued an order in March 1835 that government funds would be used only to promote Western education through the English language. Millions of students who studied in these schools never realised the subtle manner in which they were brainwashed by the curriculum.

This writer has himself been a victim of Macaulay's plan during his school days because he studied in a "convent school" in Bengaluru. For example, the entire curriculum was strongly English-oriented, and the entire environment in the school would be like that of a school in England.

The annual exams were in early December, followed by a month-long Christmas and New Year vacation. All the students learnt Christmas Carols. Although our mother tongue was Kannada, no one spoke Kannada in school. In our history and social sciences classes, there was never any reference to the Ramayana or Mahabharata or the great epics and stories of Bharat.

On the other hand, we were taught about how Rome was built and about the twin brothers Romulus and Remus. We were never told the story of Arjuna or his Gandiva or about the skills of Bhima. On the other hand, we were taught about King Arthur and his Knights and about King Arthur's magical sword called Excalibur.

Just imagine how millions of students who pass out of such schools fit into India? Most of them become misfits, but as per Macaulay's plan, they – the Macaulayputras - became the rulers of India. They are all children and grandchildren of Maharajas who enter politics, or enter the armed forces or the ICS and IAS, and become bureaucrats or become editors of English newspapers.

The aspirational urban middle class, which largely provided the workforce for the bureaucracy, got sucked into Macaulay's vile plan, saw it as the passport to a good life and became co-conspirators for the destruction of Bharat's civilizational memory.

This writer was lucky to switch to an "Indian" school later and get the first exposure to Swami Vivekananda, Shri Aurobindo, the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and the Bhagawad Gita. But this writer was among the lucky few to escape from Macaulay's trap. Most others succumbed to it, and tragically, post-independence, the Congress Party, the Communists and the Nehruvians promoted Macaulayputras who falsified history, condemned Indian culture and spread a pseudo-secular culture across the land.

India had to wait for the arrival of Narendra Modi at the helm in 2014 to begin work towards restoring India's ancient culture and civilisation. Sadly, not a single Prime Minister before Modi ji identified the destructive impact of Macaulay's plan.

Now that Mr Modi has identified this monstrous problem, all those who love Bharat and value its extraordinary civilisation must take this pledge (Sankalp) as advised by him and ensure that the ghost of Macaulay is exorcised by 2035 and Indian languages and culture attain their much-deserved glory.

(Disclaimer: The author is an expert on democratic issues and a senior columnist. The views expressed are his own and are not endorsed by The Daily Jagran.)