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The myth of English as a ‘colonialist’ imposition upon India: a reappraisal with special reference to South India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Robert E. Frykenberg
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Extract

Every schoolboy and schoolgirl in India, figuratively speaking, is taught the Myth of Macaulay's Minute. According to this myth, attitudes of lofty condescension towards India's peoples and their inferior cultures, combined with practical needs for a cheap labour force to supply the manpower requirements of an enormous bureaucratic machine, prompted alien rulers to impose an English language educational system upon the subcontinent and, thereby, to neglect and stifle the natural growth of indigenous educational institutions. Moreover, in its more extreme forms, this myth assumes that these rulers were also either racially arrogant or wilfully ignorant, or both. Finally, this myth assumes that the disastrous consequences of this “colonialist” fiat were a major factor inhibiting the progress and well-being of a large proportion of India's peoples.

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Articles
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 120 , Issue 2 , April 1988 , pp. 305 - 315
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1988

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References

1 T. B. Macaulay's minute on education, 2 February 1835, has been published and reprinted many times. A recent printing of the full text is found in The Correspondence of Lord William Cavendish Bentinck: Governor-General of India, 1828–1835, ed. Philips, C. H., 2 vols. (Oxford, 1977), II, pp. 1403–1413 [793.]Google Scholar.

2 Ibid., p. 1405. “I have no knowledge of either Sanskrit or Arabic. But I have done what I could to form a correct estimate of their value . . . 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”.

3 Foster, William, The Founding of Fort St. George (London, 1920), pp. 1–24Google Scholar; Srinavasachari, C. S., History of the City of Madras(Madras, 1939), pp. 26–36Google Scholar.

4 Ibid. Also, Sathianathaier, R., Tamilaham in the 17th Century (Madras, 1956), pp. 40–8Google Scholar.

5 Deyell, J. S. and Frykenberg, R. E., “Sovereignty and the ‘SIKKA’ under Company Raj:. . .,” The Indian Economic and Social History Review (IESHR) 19, 1: pp. 1–25Google Scholar.

6 Love, H. D., Vestiges of Old Madras, 3 vols (London, 1913), 2: pp. 100–4Google Scholar; Wheeler, J. T., Madras in Olden Times, 3 vols (Madras, 1961), 1: pp. 197–207Google Scholar.

7 Raghavan, V., ed., “The Sarva-Deva-Vilasa: a critical historical study”, The Adyar Library Bulletin (n.d.: 1956?), 21: pts 2–3, 22: pts 1–2Google Scholar.

8 Naidoo, Bundla Ramaswamy, Memoir on the Internal Revenue System of Madras Presidency (Madras, 1824?Google Scholar; repr., 1908), pp. 72–78.

9 This impulse was to be greatly reinforced during the nineteenth century by impulses from the Scottish Enlightenment, as manifested in the patronage of Henry Dundas (First Lord Melville) under whose aegis so many brilliant and gifted young Scots were to come to India.

10 Stoeffler, F. E., German Pietism during the Eighteenth Century (Leiden, 1973), p. 281Google Scholar. Lehmann, E. A., It began at Tranquebar (Madras, 1956)Google Scholar.

11 Pearson, Hugh, Memoirs of the Life and Correspondence of the Reverend Christian Frederick Swartz, 2 vols (3rd edn., London, 1839), 1: pp. 379–85, 2: pp. 68–72)Google Scholar. The library which was then created, now known as the Saraswati Mahal Library, has since been recognized as one of India's national treasures. It contains rare manuscript and printed works in English, Marathi, Persian, Sanskrit, and many other languages.

12 Ibid., 2: extract of despatch from COD, February 16, 1787.

13 Great Britain, Parliamentary Papers (PP), 1831–1832, IX (735–1): p. 414Google Scholar. “Fisher's memoir” in Indian Education in Parliamentary Papers (Bombay, 1952)Google Scholar.

14 Row, V. Venkata Gopal, ed., The Life of Vennelacunty Soob Row (Native of Ongole), Translator of the Late Sudr Court, Madras, from 1815 to 1829 (as written by himself) (= VSR) (Madras, 1873), pp. 64–73Google Scholar.

15 Clearly, Sir Thomas Munro acquired his profound insights into local society and structures of power in South India through years of close contact with Maratha Brahmans. As Governor, he took early morning walks along the Marina, surrounded by a coterie of Desasthas. Over half of the highest positions open to Indians in the Madras administration—Tahsildar cadre (which included Sheristadars and Huzur Sheristadars)—were occupied by Desasthas. Not long after Munro's untimely death from cholera (in Cuddapah, July 6,1827), Soob Row retired from public service and devoted his remaining years to the endowment of religious charities and to providing for relatives.

16 Ibid., VSR. p. 174.

17 [Anon.], Letters from Madras, by a Lady (London, 1844), pp. 16–60, 92, 129Google Scholar.

18 Norton, George, Native Education in India: Comprising a review of its State and Progress within the Presidency of Madras (Madras, 1848), pp. 23–30Google Scholar; Evidence of Norton, George, Esq., 06 6, 1853, PP (General Sessions, H. L., 1852–53), XXXII, pp. 91–92Google Scholar; and Arbuthnot, Alexander, Papers relating to Public Instruction in the Madras Presidency (Madras, 1855), App. K: p. lvGoogle Scholar.

19 Text is found in Norton, , Native Education, pp. 31–33Google Scholar.

20 Srinivasachari, C. S., History of the City of Madras (Madras, 1939), p. 238Google Scholar; Norton, , Native Education, pp. 23–30Google Scholar; Norton, , PP, pp. 91–92Google Scholar; and Arbuthnot, op. cit., K: p. lv.

21 Mullens, Joseph, Missions in South India (Madras, 1854)Google Scholar; Richter, Julius, A History of Missions in India (1908), pp. 174–78Google Scholar; Paton, Wiliam, Alexander Duff, Pioneer of Missionary Education (London, 1923), p. 66Google Scholar; Mayhew, Arthur, Christianity and the Government of India (London, 1929), pp. 134–5Google Scholar; and McCully, Bruce T., English Education and the Origins of Indian Nationalism (New York, 1940), pp. 91–92Google Scholar.

22 Norton, , Native Education, pp. 44–52Google Scholar; Arbuthnot, op. cit., p. 47.

23 “Minute of the Marquess of Tweeddale on Education. . .” Appendix to Sixth Report of the Select Committee. . . on the Affairs of the East India Company, 1853, PP (General Sessions, H. C, 1852–53, XXIX (897), pp. 189–92Google Scholar; Arbuthnot, , Papers relating to Public Instruction, pp. 76–79Google Scholar; Norton, , Native Education, pp. 59–60Google Scholar.

24 4 Court of Directors to Governor-in-Council, Fort George, St. (Judicial Despatch), 20 01 (1) 1847: PP, GSP, House of Commons, XXVII (426): p. 558 (para 19)Google Scholar.

25 “Outrages in Tinnevelly occasioned by bad feeling between Hindoos and native Christians,” Madras Judicial Consultations, no. 2, 10 February 1846, in Board's Collection, 101.675; “Petitions . . . [re] disturbances in Tinnevelly,” MJC, 8 May 1848, BC, 114.783; PP (GSP, H.C., 1852–53), XXVII (426), pp. 566–69.

26 “Proceedings in Supreme Court on two writs of Habeas Corpus against the Rev. Mr. Anderson; proceedings relative to the native girl Mooneatha”, Madras Judicial Consultations, in Board's Collections, 109.461 and 112.092.

27 Proceedings at the Public Meeting of the Hindu Community, held in the Rooms of Patcheapa's Institution, on Wednesday, 7th October 1846 (Madras, 1846)Google Scholar.

28 “Complaints of natives on the subject of religion,” Madras Judicial Consultations, in Board's Collection: 109.457 and 109.460.

29 “705. G. Norton to Bentinck”, Madras. 20 04 1834Google Scholar: The Correspondence of Lord William Cavendish Bentinck . . . [= CLWCB], vol. II: pp. 1250–54.

30 “790. Bentinck on the education of Indians”, 20 01 1835: CLWCB, II: pp. 1395–98Google Scholar. “792. Bentinck on medical education”, 26 01 1835: CLWCB, II: pp. 1399–1403Google Scholar.

31 “418. C. E. Trevelyan to Bentinck,” Calcutta: 18 03 1832Google Scholar: CLWCB: I, pp. 776–7: “698. C. E. Trevelyan to Bentinck,” Calcutta: 9 04 1834: II: pp. 1238–39Google Scholar. Trevelyan, C. E., On the Education of the People of India (London, 1838)Google Scholar.

32 Adam, William, Reports on the State of Education in Bengal (Calcutta: 1835–38Google Scholar; reprint edn., 1941, ed. A. N. Basu).

33 “418. C. E. Trevelyan to Bentinck”, Calcutta: 18 03 1832: CLWCB, II: pp. 776–7Google Scholar. “In short, I long to see such a system of education established in India as already exists in the state of New York, in the New England state and in Prussia, and such as is now proposed to establish in France and England”.

34 This is a conclusion I would be more than happy to abandon if someone can show evidence to the contrary.

35 “730. Bentinck on reform in India”, Ootacamund: 1 06 1834: CLWCB, II: pp. 1286–88Google Scholar: “. . . anticipate my entire dissent from the opinions of those who think it better that the natives remain in ignorance. I cannot recognize the advantage of ignorance to the governors or the governed. If our rule is bad, as I believe it to be, let the natives have the means, through knowledge, to represent their grievances and to obtain redressb . . . I approve therefore of every plan by which the human mind can be instructed and of course, elevated . . . The great curse of our rule has been a constant interference with the long established native systems. . . and of the introduction of our own fancies and schemes, which, coupled with our ignorance, have desolated, more than any Maratha invasion, some of the finest provinces of our empire . . . With all due submission therefore I think, that we had better reform our system, before we attempt to describe it; and the real secret of such reform, applicable to all circumstances and to all varieties of leisure, is great moderationfor the natives and less for ourselves.

“. . . General education is my panacea for the regeneration of India. The ground must be prepared and the jungle cleared away, before the human mind can receive with any prospect of real benefit, the seeds of improvement”.

36 This was to continue for another twenty years, until the 1854 despatch on education by Sir Charles Wood.

37 C. H. Philips, in his Introduction to the two volumes of Bentinck correspondence which he edited (CLWCB cited above), puts it succinctly (p. xii.): “The middle classes of Bengal had in fact made the choice for themselves. From a variety of motives, intellectual and practical, and in a variety of ways, they were busy declaring their taste for English. The Calcutta press in English, for example, was already nourishing, with four dailies and many more weeklies, and in 1832–33 the Calcutta School Book Society has sold over fifteen thousand books in English and was to selltwice that number in the following two years”.

38 “793 T. B. Macaulay's minute on education”, 2 February 1835: CLWCB, II: p. 793. “We are not without experience to guide us. History furnishes analogous cases . . . What Greek and Latin were to the contemporaries of More and Ascham, our tongue is to the people of India. . . . The languages of western Europe civilized Russia . . .”