{
  "bookName": "History of Christianity in India: Source Materials",
  "authorName": "M. K. Kuriakose",
  "publisherName": "Indian Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge",
  "publicationYear": 2011,
  "chapterNumber": 91,
  "chapterName": "1835. Macaulay’s Minute on Education",
  "pageFrom": 122,
  "pageTo": 125,
  "pages": [
    {
      "pageNumber": 122,
      "ocrText": "122\nHISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA\n91. MACAULAY'S MINUTE ON EDUCATION (1835 A.D.)\nThomas Babington Macaulay's Minute of 2nd February, 1835,\nled to the adoption, a month later (7th March, 1835), of a government\npolicy that henceforth public funds would be spent only on English\neducation. The consequences of this decision were far-ranging, affec-\nting many areas of administrative policy. It also gave impetus to\nChristian educational programmes. G. M. Young, ed., Thomas\nBabington Macaulay. Prose and Poetry. Cited. in William Theodore\nde Bary, Sources of Indian Tradition, pp. 596-601.\nWe now come to the gist of the matter. We have a fund to be\nemployed as government shall direct for the intellectual improve-\nment of the people of this country. The simple question is, what\nis the most useful way of employing it?\nAll parties seem to be agreed on one point, that the dialects\ncommonly spoken among the natives of this part of India contain\nneither literary nor scientific information, and are, moreover, so\npoor and rude that, until they are enriched from some other quarter,\nit will not be easy to translate any valuable work into them. It\nseems to be admitted on all sides that the intellectual improvement\nof those classes of the people who have the means of pursuing higher\nstudies can at present be effected only by means of some language\nnot vernacular amongst them.\nWhat then shall that language be? One-half of the committee\nmaintain that it should be the English. The other half strongly\nrecommended the Arabic and Sanscrit. The whole question seems\nto me to be, which language is the best worth knowing?\nI have no knowledge of either Sanscrit or Arabic. But I have\ndone what I could to form a correct estimate of their value. I have\nread translations of the most celebrated Arabic and Sanscrit works.\nI have conversed both here and at home with men distinguished by\ntheir proficiency in the Eastern tongues. I am quite ready to take\nthe Oriental learning at the valuation of the Orientalists themselves,\nI have never found one among them who could deny that a single\nshelf of a good European library worth the whole native literature\nof India and Arabia. The intrinsic superiority of the Western\nliterature is, indeed, fully admitted by those members of the com-\nmittee who support the Oriental plan of Education.\nIt will hardly be disputed, I suppose, that the department of\nliterature in which the Eastern writers stand highest is poetry. And\nI certainly never met with any Orientalist who ventured to maintain\nthat Arabic and Sanscrit poetry could be compared to that of the\ngreat European nations. But when we pass from works of imagi-",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 123,
      "ocrText": "SOURCE MATERIALS\n123\nnation to works in which facts are recorded, and general principles\ninvestigated, the superiority of the Europeans becomes absolutely\nimmeasurable. It is, I I believe, no exaggeration to say, that all the\nhistoric information which has been collected from m all the books\nwritten in the Sanscrit language is less valuable than what may be\nfound in the most paltry abridgements used at preparatory schools\nin England. In every branch of physical or moral philosophy, the\nrelative position of the two nations is nearly the same.\nHow, then, stands the case? We have to educate a people who\ncannot, at present be educated by means of their mother tongue.\nWe must teach them some foreign language. The claims of our\nown language it is hardly necessary to recapitulate. It stands pre-\neminent even among the languages of the West. It abounds with\nwork of imagination not inferior to the noblest which Greece has\nbequeathed to us; with models of every species of eloquence; with\nhistorical compositions, which, considered merely as narratives,\nhave seldom been surpassed, and which, considered as vehicles of\nethical and political instruction, have never been equalled; with\njust and lively representations of human life and human nature;\nwith the most profound speculations on metaphysics, morals,\ngovernment, jurisprudence, and trade; with full and correct infor-\nmation respecting every experimental science which tends to preserve\nthe health, to increase the comfort, or to expand the intellect of\nman. Whoever knows that language has ready access to all the\nvast intellectual wealth, which all the wisest nations of the earth\nhave created and hoarded in the course of ninety generations. It\nmay safely be said that the literature now extant in that language\nis of far greater value than all the literature which three hundred\nyears ago was extant in all the languages of the world together.\nNor is this all. In India, English is the language spoken by the\nruling class. It is spoken by the higher class of natives at the seats\nof government. It is likely to become the language of commerce\nthroughout the seas of the East. It is the language of two great\nEuropean communities which are rising, the one in the south of\nAfrica, the other in Australasia, communities which are every year\nbecoming more important and more closely connected with, our\nIndian empire. Whether we look at the intrinsic value of our\nliterature, or at the particular situation of this country, we shall\nsee the strongest reason to think that, of all foreign tongues, the\nEnglish tongue is that which should be the most useful to our native\nsubjects.\nThe question now before us is simply whether, when it is in our\npower to teach this language, we shall teach languages in which,\nby the universal confession, there are no books on any subjects\nwhich deserve to be compared to our own; whether, when we can\nteach European science, we shall teach systems which, by universal",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 124,
      "ocrText": "124\nHISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA\nconfession, whenever they differ from those of Europe, differ for\nthe worse; and whether, when we can patronise sound philosophy\nand true history, we shall countenance, at the public expense,\nmedical doctrines which would disgrace an English farrier, astro-\nnomy which would move laughter in girls at an English boarding\nschool, history abounding with kings thirty feet high and reigns\nthirty thousand years long, and geography made up of seas of treacle\nand seas of butter\nAll the declamations in the world about the love and reverence\nof the natives for their sacred dialects will never, in the mind of any\nimpartial person, outweigh the undisputed fact that we cannot find,\nin all our vast empire, a single student who will let us teach him\nthose dialects unless we will pay him Why then is it necessary\nto pay people to learn Sanscrit and Arabic? Evidently because it is\nuniversally felt that the Sanscrit and Arabic are languages, the\nknowledge which does not compensate for the trouble of acquiring\nthem. On all such subjects the state of the market is the decisive\ntest.\n(Answering the claims of the Orientalists, he asserted): But there\nis yet another argument which seems even more untenable. It is\nsaid that the Sanscrit and Arabic are the languages in which the\nsacred books of a hundred millions of people are written, and that\nthey are, on that account, entitled to peculiar encouragement.\nAssuredly it is the duty of the British government in India to be\nnot only tolerant, but neutral on all religious questions. But to\nencourage the study of a literature admitted to be of small intrinsic\nvalue, only because that literature inculcates the most serious\nerrors on the most important subjects, is a course hardly reconci-\nlable with reason, with morality, or even with that very neutrality\nwhich ought as we all agree, to be sacredly preserved. It is confessed\nthat a language is barren of useful knowledge. We are to teach it\nbecause it is fruitful of monstrous superstitions. We are to teach\nfalse history, false astronomy, false medicine, because we find them\nin company with a false religion. We abstain, and I trust shall\nalways abstain, from giving any public encouragement to those\nwho are engaged in the work of converting natives to Christianity.\nAnd while we act thus, can we reasonably and decently bribe men\nout of the revenues of the state to waste their youth in learning how\nthey are to purify themselves after touching an ass or what text of\nthe Vedas they are to repeat to expiate the crime of killing a goat?\nIt is taken for granted by the advocates of Oriental learning that\nno native of this country can possibly attain more than a mere\nsmattering of English. They do not attempt to prove this; but\nthey perpetually insinuate it. They designate the education which\ntheir opponents recommend as a mere spelling book education.",
      "status": "completed"
    },
    {
      "pageNumber": 125,
      "ocrText": "SOURCE MATERIALS\n125\nThey assume it as undeniable, that the question is between a pro-\nfound knowledge of Hindu and Arabian literature and science\non one side and a superficial knowledge of the rudiments of English\non the other. This is not merely an assumption, but an assumption\ncontrary to all reason and experience. We know that foreigners\nof all nations do learn our language sufficiently to have access to\nall the most abstruse knowledge which it contains, sufficiently to\nrelish even the most delicate graces of our most idiomatic writers.\nThere are in this very town natives who are quite competent to\ndiscuss political or scientific questions with fluency and precision\nin the English language. I have heard the very question on which\nI am now writing, discussed by native gentlemen with a liberality\nand intelligence which would do credit to any member of the Com-\nmittee of Public Instruction. Indeed it is unusual to find, even in\nthe literary circles of the continent, any foreigner who can express\nhimself in English with SO much facility and correctness\nas we find in many Hindus. Nobody, I suppose, will contend\nthat English is so difficult to a Hindu as Greek to an Englishman.\nYet an intelligent English youth, in a much smaller number of years\nthan our unfortunate pupils pass at the Sanscrit College, becomes\nable to read, to enjoy, and to imitate, not unhappily, compositions\nof the best Greek authors. Less than half the time which enables\nan English youth to read Herodotus and Sophoclis ought to enable\na Hindu to read Hume and Milton.\nTo sum up what I have said, I think it clear that we are not\nfettered by the Act of Parliament of 1813; that we are not fettered\nby any pledge expressed or implied; that we are free to employ\nour funds as we choose; that we ought to employ them in teaching\nwhat is best worth knowing; that English is better worth knowing\nthan Sanscrit or Arabic; that the natives are desirous to be taught\nEnglish, and are not desirous to be taught Sanscrit or Arabic;\nthat neither as the languages of law, nor as the languages of religion,\nhave the Sanscrit and Arabic any peculiar claim to our engagement;\nthat it is possible to make natives of this country thoroughly English\nscholars; and that to this end our efforts ought to be directed.\nIn point I fully agree with the gentlemen to whose general views\nI am opposed. I feel with them that it is impossible for us, with our\nlimited means, to attempt to educate the body of the people. We\nmust at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters\nbetween us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons,\nIndian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in\nmorals and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the\nvernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with\nterms and science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and\nto render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge\nto the great mass of the population.",
      "status": "completed"
    }
  ]
}