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Macaulayism

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Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859).

Macaulayism refers to the policy of ostensibly eliminating indigenous culture through the planned substitution of the alien culture of a colonizing power via the education system. The term is derived from the name of British politician Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859), an individual who was instrumental in the introduction of English as the medium of instruction for higher education in India and for encouraging the systematic wiping out of traditional and indigenous means of education and sciences.[1]

History

Thomas Macaulay

Also see Thomas Babbington Macaulay

Thomas Babington Macaulay was born in Leicestershire, England on 25 October 1800, the son of a former Colonial Governor of an African colony and anti-slavery activist.[2]

Elected to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in 1830 as a member of the reformist Whig party, Macaulay was named in 1834 as an inaugural member of a governing Supreme Council of India.[2] Macaulay spent the next four years in India, where he devoted his efforts to the reform of the Indian criminal code and the establishment of an educational system based upon the British model, which involved introducing Indians to European ideas since the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment.[2].

Macaulay held western culture in high esteem, and was dismissive of the existent Indian culture, which he perceived as stagnant and fallen well behind mainstream European scientific and philosophical thought. He saw his undertaking as a "civilizing mission": "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," Macaulay declared.[3]

"Macaulayism" and modern India

See also: Business process outsourcing to India

In the independent Republic of India which emerged in the second half of the 20th century, Hindu nationalists have blamed Macaulay for the ills of colonialism, and for ostensibly producing a subculture of Indians who are not proud of their distinct heritage.[4]

Speaking at a national seminar on "Decolonizing English Education" in 2001, Professor Kapil Kapoor of Jawaharlal Nehru University claimed that one of the byproducts of mainstream English language education in India today has been its tendency to "marginalize inherited learning" and to have uprooted academics from traditional Indian modes of thought, inducing in them "a spirit of self-denigration (heenabhavna)."[5] Rajiv Malhotra has bemoaned the "continuation of the policy on Indian education started by the famous Lord Macaulay over 150 years ago" for the virtual banishment of classic Indian literature from the country's higher academic institutions and the emergence of a "new breed" of writers professing a "uniquely Indian Eurocentrism."[6]

Many Hindu nationalists claim that Macaulayism is a mechanism of British neocolonial control in India. Though Britain has long since ceased to play a significant role in India's economy, Indian-originated multinational conglomerates that are either based in London or have been brought up in the British education system such as ArcelorMittal and the Tata Group now own many Indian companies and run educational institutions. [7]

Similar terms in other parts of Asia

While not directly related to "Macaulayism", similar derogatory terms in other parts of Asia revolve around the adoption of Western cultural habits and/or idolization of Caucasians. Pinkerton syndrome in Singapore, Kalu Sudda in Sri Lanka[8] and "崇洋媚外" in China[9] are some examples. Reports and incidences of such behaviour and attitudes are also found in Thailand, Malaysia,[10] Hong Kong,[11] Philippines,[12] Japan and South Korea.[13]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ Masani, Zareer (2 February 2013). Macaulauy: Britains' liberal imperialist. London: The Bodley Head. ISBN 1847922716. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  2. ^ a b c "Thomas Babington Macaulay," age-of-the-sage.org/ Retrieved 16 March 2011.
  3. ^ "Macaulay's Minute on Indian Education". www.english.ucsb.edu.
  4. ^ Christophe Jaffrelot, Hindu Nationalist Movement and Indian Politics: 1925 to the 1990s. New York: Viking Press, 1996; page 343.
  5. ^ Kapil Kapoor, "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.
  6. ^ Rajiv Malhotra, "The Axis of Neocolonialism," 12 February 2006.
  7. ^ Thomas M. Leonard, Encyclopedia of the Developing World: Volume 1, London: Routledge, 2005; page 1119.
  8. ^ "Roar Media - A new media platform that covers news and analyses politics, business, lifestyle, technology, arts and culture in South Asia". roar.media.
  9. ^ http://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%B4%87%E6%B4%8B%E5%AA%9A%E5%A4%96
  10. ^ "Malaysians love whites… and that's a fact". 23 October 2016.
  11. ^ "White worship in Hong Kong: you can't end it if you refuse to acknowledge it even exists".
  12. ^ "Asian Brands Need To Do Better: Stop Using White Models". nextshark.com.
  13. ^ "Why Do Asian Brands Use White Models? - Highsnobiety". 5 March 2018.
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