Decolonising mind space- 21st century Intellectual revolt against 19th century Macauley
Lord Macauley, Allan Octavian Hume and Congress
A question is generally asked in modern India by curious minds, why many educated Indians are not proud of their heritage and culture. This article is an attempt to answer this.
In 1823 Ram Mohun Roy wrote letter to Lord Amherst demanding western education for natives. Later, taking a cue, on second February 1835, Lord Thomas Babington Macauley gave proposal to British parliamentarians to kill native languages in British colonies, including Sanskrit and Arabic. Only three quoted paragraphs from his very elaborate argument are enough to understand that natives needed to be civilised and English education is key.
Quote1 “I am quite ready to take the oriental learning at the valuation of the orientalists themselves. I have never found one among them who could deny that a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia. The intrinsic superiority of the Western literature is indeed fully admitted by those members of the committee who support the oriental plan of education.” Unquote.
Quote2 “But when we pass from works of imagination to works in which facts are recorded and general principles investigated, the superiority of the Europeans becomes absolutely immeasurable. It is, I believe, no exaggeration to say that all the historical information which has been collected from all the books written in the Sanskrit language is less valuable than what may be found in the most paltry abridgments used at preparatory schools in England.” Unquote
Quote3 “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 tastes, 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.” Unquote
1857 was a watershed movement in civilizing project of natives, as Calcutta, Bombay and Madras universities were formed immediately after failed attempt of independence led by Indian sepoys supported by some princely states. Purpose of forming these universities was to tame down tendencies of any future revolt by natives. Many natives went to England and came back to India after studying English law.
Five decades after Macualey, in May 1885 Allan Octavian Hume, a retired British ICS officer secured the viceroy’s approval to create an “Indian National Union”, affiliated with the government and act as a platform to voice Indian public opinion. It is interesting to note that for Hume and British Empire, this Indian public represented none other than sizeable numbers of Brown skinned native Englishmen groomed in Indian and English universities. These were natives by looks but Englishmen in thoughts, a civilised product of Macaulay’s education system.
On 28 December 1885, with seventy two anglicised/civilised natives, Hume founded Congress in Bombay. Congress became a social club of that intermediary class that transacted political negotiations with British Empire on behalf of backward natives.
Congress and freedom struggle
One important purpose of Congress in scheme of things of British Empire was to act as safety valve in ever boiling pressure cooker of native India. Inspired by holy texts of Mahabharata and Ramayana that justified violence for protecting dharma, uncivilised natives always carried tendencies of revolt against British Empire that was seen as adharmic force. So Congress was deployed to keep pricking from time to time, native balloon of revolt. Congress did few novel things to achieve this not necessarily in same sequence
A. Atrophy native zeal for violent means of freedom struggle. So non-violence was propagated as divine and noble concept. Buddha’s teachings were suitably modified for this purposes.
B. Create fissures within Hindu society by building narrative of caste and race based discrimination. Actively create atrocity literature to produce self-loathing natives.
C. Eulogise invaders and sanitise their brutalities.
D. Erase the stories of valour and struggle of natives from memory.
E. Play a game of garam dal (fiery group) and naram dal (soft group) within congress to confuse natives.
F. Align with caliphate movement and ignore violence unleashed on natives by proponents of caliphate.
G. Help British Empire fight different wars around the world as friend and ally.
It is anybody’s guess that British found right successor in Congress. Congress not only helped extend life of British rule till 1947, but also became true inheritor of transfer of power after 1947. Congress leadership of brown skinned Englishmen continued to rule natives as British did.
Congress and India after transfer of power
English remained language of privileged in post independent India. A sub-intelligent but eloquent speaker and writer of English would be considered intellectual and would often occupy high position government, administration and judiciary. In 1947, Congress government under Nehru handed over education ministry to a Maulana. Purpose of this move was to further re-write social sciences and create academic eco-system that furthers the cause of alienation of natives from roots. Same Macau-lean fear psychosis of potential native revolt, fuelled academia and universities that taught distorted history and social sciences five decades after transfer of power. More and more natives were brainwash as sepoys to continue legacy of British Empire.
Did natives again revolted in 21st century against Macauley’s India
It is quite intriguing that in spite of best efforts to half a century of deliberate educational dishonesty in social sciences and history, suddenly a major section of educated India started questioning Congress eco-system, dishonest academia and intellectuals and their false narratives. Educated India also started questioning the present government that continued with dishonest social sciences in academia and education. This questioning by educated may be labelled intellectual revolt akin to physical revolt of 1857, with one difference that this time it happened in mind space of educated middle class.
Channelizing the decolonising intellectual revolt in positive way
In modern information society, educated middle class Indians, most often with their science and commerce background substantially progressed. Further, this middle class got detoxified from social sciences lessons they studied in schools. They are eager to understand the heritage, culture and history of their ancestors with open mind. While studying science and commerce lessons in universities, they did not get glimpse into this native heritage and culture. A restructuring of syllabus to include chronicles of travellers who visited ancient India and mandatory reading of some items from decolonising reading list on science is need of hour.
