SEMINAR - MACAULAY'S MINUTES

MACAULAY’S MINUTES

INTRODUCTION

The period between 1835 and 1853 in India, a controversy was started about the relative importance of occidental and oriental literature and culture. The question was as to which one superior to the other. This was the period of expansion of the British Empire. They were getting success after success in various parts of the world, so it was quite natural that they considered their language, literature and culture superior to those of others.

Before 1813, the Company’s educational policy was influenced by Orientalism. The Company wanted to maintain the old educational system. There were many important English officers who were supporters of this policy. The members of the General Committee of Public Instruction who agreed to spend one lack of rupees were also in favour of Orientalism. Princep was the leader of the group of Orientalists. They emphasised education in Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian. In other words they regarded the Indian languages and culture superior to the culture and literature of Europe

The supporters of Occidental point of view were young Englishmen and in number they surpassed the Orientalist Englishmen. They looked down at Indian languages, literature and culture. They believed that knowledge could be imparted only through English and it was with Western knowledge that moral standards of Indians could be raised. Therefore, the major portion of the money sanctioned should be spent on the study of Western knowledge.

Lord Macaulay was one of the learned persons of England. On June 10, 1834 he became a member of the Governor- General’s Council and was appointed the President of the Committee of Public Instruction. He was a staunch supporter of the Occidentalism and had come to India with new educational ideas. Macaulay reached India when the Occidental- Oriental controversy was at its peak. For him the culture and civilisation of India appeared to be foreign and he thought to spend European culture and civilisation in India, in preference to the existing one in the country.

MACAULAY AND HIS MINUTES ON EDUCATION

Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1858) was a great scholar and educationist of this period. He was a writer of great repute. He came to India in 1834 and was appointed as the President of Committee of Public Instruction by Governor General Lord William Bentick.

Macaulay wrote his famous minutes on February 2, 1835 in which he vehemently criticized everything Indian- astronomy, history, philosophy, religion and praised everything western. On this basis he advocated the national system of education for India which could serve the interest of the British Empire. His famous Minutes was accepted and Lord William Bentick issued proclamation in March 1835 which set at rest all controversies and led to the formation of policy which became the corner stone of al educational programmes during the British period in India.

The beginning of the state system of education in India under the British rule may be traced back to the year 1813 when the East India Company was compelled by the force of circumstances to accept responsibility for the education of Indians. The Charter did not specify the methods to secure the objects of revival and improvement of nature, the encouragement of learned natives of India and the introduction and the promotion of knowledge of sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories in India.

MACAULAY’S MINUTES

Macaulay begins his Minutes by stating the Charter Act of 1813 which does not specify anything in particular about the languages or sciences which are to be studied. He says that there is no pledge given on support of Indian Language Education. He gave the Governor General the disposition of money for the purpose of learning in India, in a way which he thought most advisable. He hold the Lordship “to be quite as free to direct that it shall no longer be employed in encouraging Arabic and Sanskrit.” All parties agreed on the point that the dialects spoken by the natives of India contain neither literary nor scientific information. All admitted that the intellectual improvement of the natives who have the means of pursuing higher studies can be affected only by means of some language, not vernacular amongst them.

WHAT THEN SHALL THAT LANGUAGE BE?

One half of the Committee maintained that it should be English while the other half maintained that it should be Arabic and Sanskrit. Macaulay had no knowledge of Sanskrit or Arabic. Inorder to form a correct estimate of their values he read the translations of the most celebrated Arabic and Sanskrit works. He conversed with men distinguished by their proficiency in the Eastern tongues. He was ready to take the Oriental learning at the valuation of Occidentalists themselves. He never found any one among them who could deny that a shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia. Thus the intrinsic superiority of the Western literature was fully admitted by those members of the Committee who supported the Oriental plan of education.

ENGLISH : THE LANGUAGE IN WHICH INDIAS HAVE TO BE EDUCATED

Macaulay stated that people of India cannot be educated by means of their mother tongue. He advocated English as the language in which the Indians had to be educated. The reasons that he furnished in support of English were that, English was pre-eminent language among the languages of the West. English is spoken by the higher class of natives at the seats of Government. It is likely to become the language of commerce throughout the seats of the East. Whether it be the intrinsic value of English literature or the particular situation of India, it could be seen as the strongest reason to think that of all the tongues the English tongue is the most suitable tongue to teach the natives of India.

INDIANS ACTUALLY DESIRE TO LEARN ENGLISH AND WESTERN SCIENCES

  Macaulay is against the opinion that inorder to get the cooperation of the natives,   they must be taught in Arabic and Sanskrit. He says that when a nation of high intellectual attainments undertakes to superintend the education of a comparatively ignorant nation, it is not necessary that learners have to prescribe the course which is to be taken by the teachers. He says that by doing so “we are withholding from them the learning they are craving, we are forcing on them the mock learning which they nauseate. This is proved by the fact that we are forced to pay our Arabic and Sanskrit students, while those who yearn English are willing to pay us.”

EXPENDITURE ON SANSKRIT AND ARABIC IS A DEAD LOSS

For Macaulay the money spend on Sanskrit and Arabic colleges are not merely a dead loss to the cause of truth, but it is bounty-money paid to raise-up champions of error. He says that if there is any opposition from the natives to the changes he recommends, it is the effect  their own system.

THE REAL DESIRE OF INDIANS

The native people left to themselves are not supporters of old system. As an example Macaulay points out that the Committee spend lack of rupees in printing Arabic and Sanskrit books. But those books found no purchasers. While the school book society sold out seven or eight thousand English volumes every year, not only pays the expenses of printing but realizes a profit of 20 percent on its outlay.

INDIANS CAN ATTAIN EXCELLENCE IN ENGLISH

The advocates of oriental learning granted that no natives of India can merely attain English. But Macaulay says that he “found in this very town, natives who are quite competent to discuss political or scientific questions with fluency and precision in the English language. He says that just like an English youth who can read Herodotus and Sophocles, an Indian can read Hume and Milton.

TO SUM UP

Macaulay sums up by saying that he “think it clear that we are not fettered by the Act of Parliament of 1813, that we are fettered by any pledge expressed or implied, that we ought to employ the funds in teaching what is best worth knowing, that English is best worth knowing than Sanskrit or Arabic, that it is possible to make natives of this country thoroughly good English scholars, and to this end our efforts ought to be directed. We must form a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, opinions, morals and intellect.”

Macaulay said that he would strike at the root of the bad system which has been hitherto forced by them. He would stop the printing of Arabic and Sanskrit books. He would abolish the Madrassa and Sanskrit college at Culcutta. If he retains the Sanskrit college at Delhi, no stipends will be given to the students. The funds thus placed at disposal would be used to give large encouragement to the Hindu College at Culcutta and establish in the principal cities throughout the Presidencies of Fort William and Agra, schools in which the English language might be well and thoroughly taught.

Macaulay concluded the Minutes by giving the Governor General the disposal of the Minutes. If he agreed by his Lordship, then he would be happy to continue, or if it is in the contrary, he would like to resign from his post President of Committee of Public Instruction. Lord Bentick passed the Minutes in March 1835.

ž  Not fettered by the Charter Act of 1813.

ž  Free to employ the funds as they chose.

ž  Employ the natives in teaching what is best worth knowing.

ž  English is better worth knowing than Sanskrit or Arabic.

ž  The natives are desirous to be taught English, and are not desirous to be taught in Sanskrit or Arabic.

ž  It is possible to make natives of this country thoroughly good English scholars.

MERITS

ž A clear cut picture of the national system of education in India emerged

ž English schools began to be established.

ž English became the medium of instruction.

ž Western arts and sciences became popular.

DEMERITS

ž Indian culture and philosophy receded to the background.

ž Vernacular languages began to be neglected.

ž Mass education was neglected.

ž Western culture made rapid strives.

ž Arabic and Sanskrit languages found very few takers.