Did Macaulay unknowingly do us a favour by giving us English?

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Macaulay is a much reviled figure in India and with much justification for his decision to replace traditional Indian education with an English medium education that was Western in its ethos and orientation. His intention may have been to give rise to a class of Indians who were in his words “Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, opinions, morals and intellect,”but what it achieved was giving the Indian people the opportunity to understand their oppressors better and ultimately oust them.

Merely teaching the highly intelligent Indians who had a long tradition of assimilating myriad cultural and linguistic influences into their fabric, in English was hardly going to subjugate their minds to the glory of the European races. However, the introduction of the language as a medium of instruction at a time when the star of Europe was on the ascendant, and the continent was leading the world in scientific discoveries acted as a catalyst for Indians to catch up with the West and reclaim their place in the world. It also helped them reevaluate and reconnect with their own past, thanks to the pioneering work of many Western Indologists like Max Mueller.

Besides, it allowed people in different parts of the vast Indian land mass who spoke different languages to receive education in a common language and thereby let them understand each other better. Till today a vast number of Indians from South India talk to their Northern compatriots in English. So the language in that sense helped foster national unity across the nation, from across the North, South, East and West of the country. As a matter fact English has become more than an official language used for education, office work, parliamentary debates and dissemination of news. Not only was the Indian constitution first written in it, the language is spoken across millions of bi-lingual homes in India. As a matter of fact India is home to its own Indian English with its unique peculiarities and eccentricities and is globally recognised as such.

It is not surprising that many of the leading lights of the Indian freedom movement like Dadabhai Naoroji, Gopal Krishan Gokhale, Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, BR Ambedkar and many others received an English education, either in India or abroad in England. These were wise and erudite men who were aware of their own glorious heritage and proud of it, but welcomed whatever they could learn from Europe and the West. Far from fawning upon their colonial rulers and blindly following their dictates, they stood up to them and questioned their right to colonize and oppress the lands of others, which ultimately led to the freedom of the country.

The fact that millions of Indians continue to receive their education in English has helped them excel at home in India and countries across the world, rising to the highest possible positions in academics, business, politics and a range of other fields or disciplines. At the same time, the Indian languages have seen a revival and greater use in public life, allowing people to discover the richness of their own culture and civilisation that predates that of the West by millennia. 

Thomas Macaulay may have been a bigoted and ignorant colonialist who held that “a single shelf of a European library was worth the entire native literature of India and Arabia, “ but in insisting that Indians be taught in English, he not only opened a chink in the British armour by letting us know our enemies well enough to oust them, but he also helped India use the knowledge of the language to achieve an unassailable position on the world stage. Besides, Indians made the language their own using it in the way they felt it suited them best. Today, some of the most decorated and awarded writers in the English language are either Indian or of Indian origin. Macaulay would have never imagined in his wildest dreams that one day an English speaking Indian would become the Prime Minister of the UK. So much for unintended consequences.