top of page
  • kewal sethi

macauley and indian languages

from the minute of macauley "All parties seem to be agreed on one point, that the dialects commonly spoken among the natives of this part of India contain neither literary nor scientific information, and are moreover so poor and rude that, until they are enriched from some other quarter, it will not be easy to translate any valuable work into them. It seems to be admitted on all sides, that the intellectual improvement of those classes of the people who have the means of pursuing higher studies can at present be affected only by means of some language not vernacular amongst them". and again "to encourage the study of a literature, admitted to be of small intrinsic value, only because that literature inculcated the most serious errors on the most important subjects, is a course hardly reconcilable with reason, with morality, or even with that very neutrality which ought, as we all agree, to be sacredly preserved. It is confined that a language is barren of useful knowledge. We are to teach it because it is fruitful of monstrous superstitions. We are to teach false history, false astronomy, false medicine, because we find them in company with a false religion".

must share this from shri o p mishra " I was going through some of the writings of macauley. in his address to the british parliament on 2.2.1835 he said: "i have travelled accross the length and breadth of india and i have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief. such wealth I have seen in this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation which is her spiritual and cultural heritage and therefore, i propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the indians think that all that is foreign and english is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation."

1 view

Recent Posts

See All

teaching is an art there was a sports school for animals. the sports chosen were jumping, swimming, running, and flying. all sorts of animals were there as students – elephants, eagles, rabbits, torto

stray thoughts on examinations if there is a survey about examinations, 75.8 percent will say that examinations are evil. what about the remaining 24.2 percent? well, they have never been to a school.

stray thoughts on learning outcomes july 2021 we have been discussing about the annual report of grading of states in education. the grading heavily depends upon the infrastructure and management. the

bottom of page