Macaulayism - Revision history

MarvinGrenier8: slightly enhanced page per standard format also and added references

2025-10-05T21:18:07Z

slightly enhanced page per standard format also and added references

← Older revision		Revision as of 02:48, 6 October 2025
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			{{Short description\|Education policy introduced in British colonies}}
	{{EngvarB\|date=June 2021}}		{{EngvarB\|date=June 2021}}
	{{Use dmy dates\|date=January 2018}}		{{Use dmy dates\|date=January 2018}}
	[[File:Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron Macaulay.jpg\|thumb\|right\|200px\|Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859).]]		[[File:Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron Macaulay.jpg\|thumb\|right\|200px\|Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859)]]
	'''Macaulayism''' refers to the policy of introducing the English education system to British colonies. The term is derived from the name of British politician [[Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay\|Thomas Babington Macaulay]] (1800–1859), who served on the [[Council of India\|Governor-General's Council]] and was instrumental in making [[~~Indian~~ English\|English]] the medium of instruction for [[higher education in India]].<ref>{{cite book \|last1=Masani \|first1=Zareer \|title=Macaulauy: Britains' liberal imperialist \|date=2 February 2013 \|publisher=The Bodley Head \|location=London \|isbn=978-1847922717 }}</ref>		'''Macaulayism''' refers to the policy of introducing the English education system to British colonies. The term is derived from the name of British politician [[Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay\|Thomas Babington Macaulay]] (1800–1859), who served on the [[Council of India\|Governor-General's Council]] and was instrumental in making [[English language\|English]] the medium of instruction for [[higher education in India]].<ref>{{cite book \|last1=Masani \|first1=Zareer \|title=Macaulauy: Britains' liberal imperialist \|date=2 February 2013 \|publisher=The Bodley Head \|location=London \|isbn=978-1847922717 }}</ref>

	==History==		==History==
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	{{Main\|Thomas Babington Macaulay}}		{{Main\|Thomas Babington Macaulay}}

	Thomas Babington Macaulay was born in [[Leicestershire]], [[England]], on 25 October 1800, the son of [[Zachary Macaulay]], a former governor of the [[Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate\|colony of Sierra Leone]] and [[Abolitionism in the United Kingdom\|anti-slavery activist]].<ref name="Bio">[http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/history/historian/Thomas_Macaulay.html ~~"Thomas Babington Macaulay,"]~~ age-of-the-sage.org~~/ Retrieved 16 March 2011.~~</ref> His mother was [[Selina Mills]], a pupil of the great British moralist, [[Hannah More]].		Thomas Babington Macaulay was born in [[Leicestershire]], [[England]], on 25 October 1800, the son of Reverend [[Zachary Macaulay]], a member of the [[Clapham Sect]], former governor of the [[Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate\|colony of Sierra Leone]] and [[Abolitionism in the United Kingdom\|anti-slavery activist]].<ref name="Bio">{{Cite web \|title=Thomas Babington Macaulay History of England \|url=http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/history/historian/Thomas_Macaulay.html \|access-date=2024-12-26 \|website=www.age-of-the-sage.org}}</ref> His mother was [[Selina Mills]], a pupil of the great British moralist, [[Hannah More]].

	Elected to the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom]] in 1830 as a member of the [[Reformism\|reformist]] [[Whig (British political party)\|Whig party]], Macaulay was named in 1834 as an inaugural member of a governing Supreme Council of India.<ref name="Bio" /> Macaulay spent the next four years in India, where he devoted his efforts to reforming the Indian [[criminal code]], putting the British and natives on an equal legal footing, and to establishing an educational system based upon the British model, which involved introducing Indians to European ideas from the [[Renaissance]], the [[Scientific Revolution]] and the [[Age of Enlightenment\|Enlightenment]].<ref name="Bio" />		Elected to the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom]] in 1830 as a member of the [[Reformism\|reformist]] [[Whig (British political party)\|Whig party]], Macaulay was named in 1834 as an inaugural member of a governing Supreme Council of India.<ref name="Bio" /> Macaulay spent the next four years in India, where he devoted his efforts to reforming the Indian [[criminal code]], putting the British and natives on an equal legal footing, and to establishing an educational system based upon the British model and destroying ancient Indian teaching methods.{{No source\|date=December 2024}} Macaulay wanted the government to spend money only on imparting [[Western education]] and not on oriental education. He advocated the shutting down of all colleges where only eastern philosophy and subjects were taught, which involved introducing Indians to European ideas from the [[Renaissance]], the [[Scientific Revolution]] and the [[Age of Enlightenment\|Enlightenment]].<ref name="Bio" />{{Reliable\|date=December 2024}}

	Macaulay held [[Western world\|~~western~~ culture]] in high esteem, and was dismissive of ~~the existent~~ [[Culture of India\|Indian culture]], which he perceived as stagnant and something which had fallen well behind mainstream European [[Science\|scientific]] and [[Philosophy\|philosophical thought]]. He ~~saw his undertaking as a "[[civilising mission]]"~~:		Macaulay held [[Western world\|Western culture]] in high esteem, and was dismissive of [[Culture of India\|Indian culture]], which he perceived as stagnant and something which had fallen well behind mainstream European [[Science\|scientific]] and [[Philosophy\|philosophical thought]]. He once claimed that:

	<blockquote>"We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population."<ref name="Rita Raley">{{cite web \|url=http://www.english.ucsb.edu/faculty/rraley/research/english/macaulay.html \|title=Macaulay's Minute on Indian Education \|publisher=[[University of California, Santa Barbara]] }}</ref></blockquote>		<blockquote>A single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia.<ref>{{Cite web \|title=A minute to acknowledge the day when India was 'educated' by Macaulay \|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/gk-current-affairs/story/a-minute-to-acknowledge-the-day-when-india-was-educated-by-macaulay-1160140-2018-02-02 \|access-date=2023-10-02 \|website=India Today \|language=en}}</ref></blockquote>Essentially, Macaulay saw his undertaking as a "[[civilising mission]]":

			<blockquote>We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population.<ref name="Rita Raley">{{cite web \|url=http://www.english.ucsb.edu/faculty/rraley/research/english/macaulay.html \|title=Macaulay's Minute on Indian Education \|publisher=[[University of California, Santa Barbara]] }}</ref></blockquote>

	==="Macaulayism" and modern India===		==="Macaulayism" and modern India===
	{{See also\|Business process outsourcing to India}}		{{See also\|Business process outsourcing to India}}

	Since the second half of the 20th century, ~~[[Hindu nationalism\|Hindu nationalists]]~~ in India have criticised Macaulay his views on Hinduism and Indian culture at large, which they claim ~~coloured~~ his educational policies.<ref>Christophe Jaffrelot, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=uywnx2IHH8cC~~&lpg=PP1&dq=isbn%3A1850653011~~&pg=PA343~~#v=onepage&q&f=false~~ Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics: 1925 to the 1990s.]'' New York: Viking Press, 1996; page 343.</ref>		Since the second half of the 20th century, Nationalists in India have criticised Macaulay his views on Hinduism and Indian culture at large, which they claim skewed his educational policies.<ref>Christophe Jaffrelot, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=uywnx2IHH8cC&pg=PA343 Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics: 1925 to the 1990s.]'' New York: Viking Press, 1996; page 343.</ref>

	Speaking at a national seminar on "Decolonising English Education" in 2001, professor [[Kapil Kapoor]] of [[Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi\|Jawaharlal Nehru University]] highlighted that mainstream ~~[[English language\|~~English-language]] education in India today has tended to "marginalise inherited learning" and uproot academics from traditional Indian modes of thought, inducing in them "a spirit of self-denigration (''~~heenabhavna~~'')."<ref>Kapil Kapoor, [http://veda.wikidot.com/article:decolonizing-the-indian-mind "Decolonizing the Indian Mind: Keynote Address to the National Seminar on Decolonizing English Education, Department of English, North Gujarat University, Patan (Gujarat, India), February 18, 2001."] veda.com/ Retrieved 11 March 2011.</ref> Many Indian nationalists have criticised Macaulayism, claiming that it uprooted Indian traditions in sectors such as finance and replaced them with a foreign system which was wholly unsuited to India. In addition, they claim that Macaulayism caused foreign systems of thought to become prioritised over Indian systems of thought, ~~in particular~~ Hindu systems of thought.<ref>Thomas M. Leonard, ''Encyclopedia of the Developing World: Volume 1,'' London: Routledge, 2005; page 1119.</ref>		Speaking at a national seminar on "Decolonising English Education" in 2001, professor [[Kapil Kapoor]] of [[Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi\|Jawaharlal Nehru University]] highlighted that mainstream English-language education in India today has tended to "marginalise inherited learning" and uproot academics from traditional 'Indian modes of thought', inducing in them "a spirit of self-denigration ([[ISO 15919\|ISO]]:'' hīnabhāvanā '')."<ref>Kapil Kapoor, [http://veda.wikidot.com/article:decolonizing-the-indian-mind "Decolonizing the Indian Mind: Keynote Address to the National Seminar on Decolonizing English Education, Department of English, North Gujarat University, Patan (Gujarat, India), February 18, 2001."] veda.com/ Retrieved 11 March 2011.</ref> Many Indian nationalists have criticised Macaulayism, claiming that it uprooted Indian traditions in sectors such as finance and replaced them with a foreign system which was wholly unsuited to India. In addition, they claim that Macaulayism caused foreign systems of thought to become prioritised over Indian systems of thought, particularly Hindu systems of thought.<ref>Thomas M. Leonard, ''Encyclopedia of the Developing World: Volume 1,'' London: Routledge, 2005; page 1119.</ref>

	== Similar terms in other parts of Asia ==		== Similar terms in other parts of Asia ==
	While not directly related to "Macaulayism", similar terms in other parts of Asia revolve around the adoption of Western cultural habits. "[[Pinkerton syndrome]]" in [[Singapore]], ~~"Kalu Sudda"~~ in [[Sri Lanka]] and "崇洋媚外" in China are some examples for these cultural adoptions.<ref>{{cite web\|url=https://roar.media/english/life/humour/sri-lankan-expats-australia-types-troubles-%E2%80%92-part-2/\|title=Roar Media – A new media platform that covers news and analyses politics, business, lifestyle, technology, arts and culture in South Asia.\|website=roar.media}}</ref> Reports and incidences of such behaviour and attitudes are also found in [[Thailand]], [[Malaysia]],<ref>{{cite web\|url=http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/highlight/2016/10/23/malaysians-love-whites-and-thats-a-fact/\|title=Malaysians love whites… and that's a fact\|date=23 October 2016\|publisher=}}</ref> [[Hong Kong]],<ref>{{cite web\|url=~~http~~://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1873833/white-worship-hong-kong-you-cant-end-it-if-you-refuse\|title=White worship in Hong Kong: you can't end it if you refuse to acknowledge it even exists\|publisher=}}</ref> Philippines,<ref>{{cite web\|url=https://nextshark.com/asian-brands-need-better-stop-using-white-models/\|title=Asian Brands Need To Do Better: Stop Using White Models\|website=nextshark.com}}</ref> [[Japan]] and [[South Korea]].<ref>{{cite web\|url=http://www.highsnobiety.com/2016/05/02/asian-fashion-brands-white-models/\|title=Why Do Asian Brands Use White Models? – Highsnobiety\|date=5 March 2018\|publisher=}}</ref>		While not directly related to "Macaulayism", similar terms in other parts of Asia revolve around the adoption of Western cultural habits. "[[Pinkerton syndrome]]" in [[Singapore]], ''kalu sudda'' in [[Sri Lanka]] and "崇洋媚外" in China are some examples for these cultural adoptions.<ref>{{cite web\|url=https://roar.media/english/life/humour/sri-lankan-expats-australia-types-troubles-%E2%80%92-part-2/\|title=Roar Media – A new media platform that covers news and analyses politics, business, lifestyle, technology, arts and culture in South Asia.\|website=roar.media}}</ref> Reports and incidences of such behaviour and attitudes are also found in [[Thailand]], [[Malaysia]],<ref>{{cite web\|url=http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/highlight/2016/10/23/malaysians-love-whites-and-thats-a-fact/\|title=Malaysians love whites… and that's a fact\|date=23 October 2016\|publisher=}}</ref> [[Hong Kong]],<ref>{{cite web\|url=https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1873833/white-worship-hong-kong-you-cant-end-it-if-you-refuse\|title=White worship in Hong Kong: you can't end it if you refuse to acknowledge it even exists\|date=29 October 2015 \|publisher=}}</ref> Philippines,<ref>{{cite web\|url=https://nextshark.com/asian-brands-need-better-stop-using-white-models/\|title=Asian Brands Need To Do Better: Stop Using White Models\|website=nextshark.com}}</ref> [[Japan]] and [[South Korea]].<ref>{{cite web\|url=http://www.highsnobiety.com/2016/05/02/asian-fashion-brands-white-models/\|title=Why Do Asian Brands Use White Models? – Highsnobiety\|date=5 March 2018\|publisher=}}</ref>

	==See also==		==See also==
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	{{Reflist}}		{{Reflist}}

	~~[[Category:British India]]~~
	[[Category:History of education in India]]		[[Category:History of education in India]]
	[[Category:~~Neocolonialism~~]]		[[Category:English-language education]]
			[[Category:British East India Company]]
			[[Category:1835 in British India]]
			[[Category:Language policy in India]]
			[[Category:Cultural assimilation]]

imported>John Abbe: better links

2021-08-03T19:12:02Z

better links

New page

{{EngvarB|date=June 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2018}}
[[File:Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron Macaulay.jpg|thumb|right|200px|Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859).]]
'''Macaulayism''' refers to the policy of introducing the English education system to British colonies. The term is derived from the name of British politician [[Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay|Thomas Babington Macaulay]] (1800–1859), who served on the [[Council of India|Governor-General's Council]] and was instrumental in making [[Indian English|English]] the medium of instruction for [[higher education in India]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Masani |first1=Zareer |title=Macaulauy: Britains' liberal imperialist |date=2 February 2013 |publisher=The Bodley Head |location=London |isbn=978-1847922717 }}</ref>

==History==

===Thomas Macaulay===
{{Main|Thomas Babington Macaulay}}

Thomas Babington Macaulay was born in [[Leicestershire]], [[England]], on 25 October 1800, the son of [[Zachary Macaulay]], a former governor of the [[Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate|colony of Sierra Leone]] and [[Abolitionism in the United Kingdom|anti-slavery activist]].<ref name="Bio">[http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/history/historian/Thomas_Macaulay.html "Thomas Babington Macaulay,"] age-of-the-sage.org/ Retrieved 16 March 2011.</ref> His mother was [[Selina Mills]], a pupil of the great British moralist, [[Hannah More]].

Elected to the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom]] in 1830 as a member of the [[Reformism|reformist]] [[Whig (British political party)|Whig party]], Macaulay was named in 1834 as an inaugural member of a governing Supreme Council of India.<ref name="Bio" /> Macaulay spent the next four years in India, where he devoted his efforts to reforming the Indian [[criminal code]], putting the British and natives on an equal legal footing, and to establishing an educational system based upon the British model, which involved introducing Indians to European ideas from the [[Renaissance]], the [[Scientific Revolution]] and the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]].<ref name="Bio" />

Macaulay held [[Western world|western culture]] in high esteem, and was dismissive of the existent [[Culture of India|Indian culture]], which he perceived as stagnant and something which had fallen well behind mainstream European [[Science|scientific]] and [[Philosophy|philosophical thought]]. He saw his undertaking as a "[[civilising mission]]":

<blockquote>"We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population."<ref name="Rita Raley">{{cite web |url=http://www.english.ucsb.edu/faculty/rraley/research/english/macaulay.html |title=Macaulay's Minute on Indian Education |publisher=[[University of California, Santa Barbara]] }}</ref></blockquote>

==="Macaulayism" and modern India===
{{See also|Business process outsourcing to India}}

Since the second half of the 20th century, [[Hindu nationalism|Hindu nationalists]] in India have criticised Macaulay his views on Hinduism and Indian culture at large, which they claim coloured his educational policies.<ref>Christophe Jaffrelot, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=uywnx2IHH8cC&lpg=PP1&dq=isbn%3A1850653011&pg=PA343#v=onepage&q&f=false Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics: 1925 to the 1990s.]'' New York: Viking Press, 1996; page 343.</ref>

Speaking at a national seminar on "Decolonising English Education" in 2001, professor [[Kapil Kapoor]] of [[Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi|Jawaharlal Nehru University]] highlighted that mainstream [[English language|English-language]] education in India today has tended to "marginalise inherited learning" and uproot academics from traditional Indian modes of thought, inducing in them "a spirit of self-denigration (''heenabhavna'')."<ref>Kapil Kapoor, [http://veda.wikidot.com/article:decolonizing-the-indian-mind "Decolonizing the Indian Mind: Keynote Address to the National Seminar on Decolonizing English Education, Department of English, North Gujarat University, Patan (Gujarat, India), February 18, 2001."] veda.com/ Retrieved 11 March 2011.</ref> Many Indian nationalists have criticised Macaulayism, claiming that it uprooted Indian traditions in sectors such as finance and replaced them with a foreign system which was wholly unsuited to India. In addition, they claim that Macaulayism caused foreign systems of thought to become prioritised over Indian systems of thought, in particular Hindu systems of thought.<ref>Thomas M. Leonard, ''Encyclopedia of the Developing World: Volume 1,'' London: Routledge, 2005; page 1119.</ref>

== Similar terms in other parts of Asia ==
While not directly related to "Macaulayism", similar terms in other parts of Asia revolve around the adoption of Western cultural habits. "[[Pinkerton syndrome]]" in [[Singapore]], "Kalu Sudda" in [[Sri Lanka]] and "崇洋媚外" in China are some examples for these cultural adoptions.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://roar.media/english/life/humour/sri-lankan-expats-australia-types-troubles-%E2%80%92-part-2/|title=Roar Media – A new media platform that covers news and analyses politics, business, lifestyle, technology, arts and culture in South Asia.|website=roar.media}}</ref> Reports and incidences of such behaviour and attitudes are also found in [[Thailand]], [[Malaysia]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/highlight/2016/10/23/malaysians-love-whites-and-thats-a-fact/|title=Malaysians love whites… and that's a fact|date=23 October 2016|publisher=}}</ref> [[Hong Kong]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1873833/white-worship-hong-kong-you-cant-end-it-if-you-refuse|title=White worship in Hong Kong: you can't end it if you refuse to acknowledge it even exists|publisher=}}</ref> Philippines,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nextshark.com/asian-brands-need-better-stop-using-white-models/|title=Asian Brands Need To Do Better: Stop Using White Models|website=nextshark.com}}</ref> [[Japan]] and [[South Korea]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.highsnobiety.com/2016/05/02/asian-fashion-brands-white-models/|title=Why Do Asian Brands Use White Models? – Highsnobiety|date=5 March 2018|publisher=}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Education in India]]

==Footnotes==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:British India]]
[[Category:History of education in India]]
[[Category:Neocolonialism]]