Sunday Posts: Lord Macaulay's Speech on Indian Education: The Hoax
Sunday Posts: Lord Macaulay's Speech on Indian Education: The Hoax
I AM NOT SURE WHICH IS THE HOAX :
THIS ONE OR THE QUOTE FROM MACAULAY'S SPEECH
But having seen the quote among my daughter's Face Book posts, my further probes took me to this link.
I BELIEVE, irrespective of what others said, or say now, India can regain her past glory(Trust me there was a glorious past, for which we do not need endorsements or certificates), if only WE THE PEOPLE decide to move forward to achieve that goal.
M G Warrier I am tempted to trust the version of the excerpt from Macaulay's speech as authentic. My reason: Excerpts from Macaulay’s Minute, dated 2 February 1835. Quoted at page 226, in The Economic History of India Volume I by Romesh Dutt, C. I. E “We have to educate a people who cannot at present be educated by means of their mother tongue. We must teach them some foreign tongue. The claims of our own language it is hardly necessary to recapitulate. It stands pre-eminent even among the languages of the west….Nor is this all. In India, English is the language spoken by the ruling class. It is spoken by the higher class of natives at the seats of Government. It is likely to become the language of commerce throughout the seas of the East. It is the language of two great European communities which are rising, the one in the south of Africa, the other in Australia, communities which are every day becoming more important and more closely connected with our Indian Empire. Whether we look at the intrinsic value of our literature or at the particular situation of this country, we shall see the strongest reason to think that, of all foreign tongues, English tongue is that which would be most useful to our native subjects”
I AM NOT SURE WHICH IS THE HOAX :
THIS ONE OR THE QUOTE FROM MACAULAY'S SPEECH
But having seen the quote among my daughter's Face Book posts, my further probes took me to this link.
I BELIEVE, irrespective of what others said, or say now, India can regain her past glory(Trust me there was a glorious past, for which we do not need endorsements or certificates), if only WE THE PEOPLE decide to move forward to achieve that goal.
M G Warrier I am tempted to trust the version of the excerpt from Macaulay's speech as authentic. My reason: Excerpts from Macaulay’s Minute, dated 2 February 1835. Quoted at page 226, in The Economic History of India Volume I by Romesh Dutt, C. I. E “We have to educate a people who cannot at present be educated by means of their mother tongue. We must teach them some foreign tongue. The claims of our own language it is hardly necessary to recapitulate. It stands pre-eminent even among the languages of the west….Nor is this all. In India, English is the language spoken by the ruling class. It is spoken by the higher class of natives at the seats of Government. It is likely to become the language of commerce throughout the seas of the East. It is the language of two great European communities which are rising, the one in the south of Africa, the other in Australia, communities which are every day becoming more important and more closely connected with our Indian Empire. Whether we look at the intrinsic value of our literature or at the particular situation of this country, we shall see the strongest reason to think that, of all foreign tongues, English tongue is that which would be most useful to our native subjects”
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