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I think.....one of you should write about the other topics - Economy and Law & order (Defense).... I want to join the discussion instead of monotonously writing my point of view. :-) I know... its getting boring for me too :-)
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So, with the decline in the education system during the period since 1000AD when the foreign invasions picked up pace. Education started getting limited to fewer and fewer sections of the society till the East India Company occupied most of India (directly or indirectly) by early 1800s
The British ruled India with a population of 300 million at the time with a total of 60,000 British soldiers. Yet, for almost two centuries, the British were able to rule two-thirds of the subcontinent directly, and exercise considerable leverage over the Princely States that accounted for the remaining one-third. While the strategy of divide and conquer was used most effectively, an important aspect of British rule in India was the psychological indoctrination of an elite layer within Indian society who were artfully tutored into becoming model British subjects. This English-educated layer of Indian society was craftily encouraged in absorbing values and notions about themselves and their land of birth that would be conducive to the British occupation of India, and furthering British goals of looting India's physical wealth and exploiting it's labor.
the architect of the education system that achieved this goal was Thomas B Macaulay.
J. N. Farquhar (A contemporary of Macaulay and staunch supporter of Indian System of education) says he's the father of English system of education in India.
Here are a few quotes (Verbatim - From Original speeches) of Thomas Macaulay
In a Speech in the British Parliament on the Government of India Bill on 10th July 1833,
"It is scarcely possible to calculate the benefits which we might derive from the diffusion of European civilisation among the vast population of the East. It would be, on the most selfish view of the case, far better for us that the people of India were well governed and independent of us, than ill governed and subject to us; that they were ruled by their own kings, but wearing our broadcloth, and working with our cutlery, than that they were performing their salams to English collectors and English magistrates, but were too ignorant to value, or too poor to buy, English manufactures. To trade with civilised men is infinitely more profitable than to govern savages."
Minute of 2nd February 1835 on Indian Education:
"All parties seem to be agreed on one point, that the dialects commonly spoken among the natives of this part of India, contain neither literary nor scientific information, and are, moreover, so poor and rude that, until they are enriched from some other quarter, it will not be easy to translate any valuable work into them. It seems to be admitted on all sides, that the intellectual improvement of those classes of the people who have the means of pursuing higher studies can at present be effected only by means of some language not vernacular amongst them."
"What then shall that language be? One-half of the Committee maintain that it should be the English. The other half strongly recommend the Arabic and Sanscrit. The whole question seems to me to be, which language is the best worth knowing?"
"I have never found one among them (Orientalists - Indians) 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.
"And I certainly never met with any Orientalist who ventured to maintain that the Arabic and Sanscrit poetry could be compared to that of the great European nations."
"It is, I believe, no exaggeration to say, that all the historical information which has been collected from all the books written in the Sanscrit language is less valuable than what may be found in the most paltry abridgements used at preparatory schools in England."
"We have to educate a people who cannot at present be educated by means of their mother-tongue."
"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."
"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, the English tongue is that which would be the most useful to our native subjects."
"The question now before us is simply whether, when it is in our power to teach this language, we shall teach languages in which, by universal confession, there are no books on any subject which deserve to be compared to our own; whether, when we can teach European science, we shall teach systems which, by universal confession, whenever they differ from those of Europe, differ for the worse; and whether, when we can patronise sound Philosophy and true History, we shall countenance, at the public expense, medical doctrines, which would disgrace an English farrier [note: a horse shoer] -Astronomy, which would move laughter in girls at an English boarding school, History, abounding with kings thirty feet high, and reigns thirty thousand years long, and Geography, made up of seas of treacle and seas of butter."
"The literature of England is now more valuable than that of classical antiquity. I doubt whether the Sanscrit literature be as valuable as that of our Saxon and Norman progenitors. In some departments,-in History, for example, I am certain that it is much less so."
"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 taste, 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."
"We are at present a Board for Printing Books which are of less value than the paper on which they are printed was when it was blank, and for giving artificial encouragement's to absurd history, absurd metaphysics, absurd physics, and absurd theology."
Macaulay's motives behind his educational policy were not only political but religious as well as revealed in his letter of 1836 addressed to his father.
".... The effect of this education on the Hindus is prodigious. No Hindu who has received an English education ever remains sincerely attached to his religion. Some continue to profess it as a matter of policy, but many profess themselves pure Deists and some embrace Christianity. It is my firm belief if our plans of education are followed up there will not be a single idolator among the respectable classes in Bengal thirty years hence."
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1833macaulay-india.html
http://www.orientalthane.com/speeches/speech_7.htm
Britain needed a class of intellectuals meek and docile in their attitude towards the British, but full of hatred towards their fellow citizens. It was thus important to emphasize the negative aspects of the Indian tradition, and obliterate or obscure the positive. Indians were to be taught that they were a deeply conservative and fatalist people - genetically predisposed to irrational superstitions and mystic belief systems. That they had no concept of nation, national feelings or a history. If they had any culture, it had been brought to them by invaders - that they themselves lacked the creative energy to achieve anything by themselves. But the British, on the other hand epitomized modernity - they were the harbingers of all that was rational and scientific in the world. With their unique organizational skills and energetic zeal, they would raise India from the morass of casteism and religious bigotry. These and other such ideas were repeatedly filled in the minds of the young Indians who received instruction in the British schools.
Like Gurcharan Das says, against the backdrop of casteism and oppression, this appealed to all the people who wanted to get educated or wanted to be treated atleast somewhat equally.
J.N. Farquhar, while writing about Christian missionaries in the last and early decades of the l8th and l9th centuries respectively says (in 1850):
"Then it was not long before the wiser men both in Missions and in the Government began to see that, for the immeasurable task to be accomplished, it was most necessary that missions should take advantage of the advancing policy of the government and that government should use missions as civilizing ally. For the sake of progress of India, co-operation was indispensable."
"The new educational policy of the Government created during these years the modem educated class of India. These are men who think and speak in English habitually, who are proud of their citizenship in the British Empire, who are devoted to English literature, and whose intellectual life has been almost entirely formed by the thought of the West, large numbers of them enter government services, while the rest practice law, medicine or teaching, or take to journalism or business. We must also note that the powerful excitement which has sufficed to create the religious movements we have to deal with is almost entirely confined to those who have had an English education."
A graphic image of English education initiated Indian of the early 20th century is given by Anand K. Coomarswamy in 1908. He writes :
"Speak to the ordinary graduate of an Indian University, or a student from Ceylon, of the ideals of the Mahabharata - he will hasten to display his knowledge of Shakespeare : talk to him of religious philosophy - you find that he is an atheist of the crude type common in Europe a generation ago, and that not only has he no religion, but is lacking in philosophy as the average Englishman : talk to him of Indian music he will produce a gramophone or a harmonium, and inflict upon you one or both; talk to him of Indian dress or jewelry - he will tell you that they are uncivilized and barbaric; talk to him of Indian art- it is news to him that such a thing exists; ask him to translate for you a letter written in his own mothertongue - he does not know it. He is indeed a stranger in his own land.'' (Modern Review, Calcutta, Vol.4, Oct. 1908, p.338)
William Carey (1767-1837) William Hodge Mill (1792r1853) and John Muir (1810-1882) are some of the pioneers in this field and have played remarkable role in constructing the psychology of the Indians (of course as per the vision of Macaulay) coming out of the Institutions of English education. All these three Oriental scholars were acclaimed Sanskrit scholars, who have done some original work in translating Christian scriptures and theology into Sanskrit and vice versa.
Carey, who was an English Baptist Missionary, founded the famous Serampore College in 1818. It was his ambition to turn Serampore into "Christian Benares". The syllabus of the course in Serampore College was framed with the above object in view.
Richard Fox Young, History Prof at Princeton says:
"His (William Carey) intentions were also avowedly aggressive, a direct result of conflicts with Brahmins. According to his plans, Hindu literature could be placed in disadvantageous juxtaposition with the Gospel, a task which would be done effectively only by evangelists acquainted with the original sources of both religions."
Richard Young quotes Carey himself to make clear the intentions Carey's exercises :
"To gain the ear of those who are thus deceived it is necessary for them to believe that the speaker has a superior knowledge of the subject. In these circumstances a knowledge of Sanskrit is valuable. As the person thus misled, perhaps a Brahman, deems this a most important part of knowledge, if the advocate of truth be deficient therein, he labors against the hill; presumption is altogether against him."
John Muir came to Calcutta somewhere in 1827-28, He was a firm believer in Christianity and its propagation and was an outstanding scholar in Sanskrit. He served the East lndia Company in various administrative departments in North-West Frontier Province. His knowledge gave him an opportunity to work in the Sanskrit Department of the famous Benares College (1844-45) Writes Young :
"Muir's manipulation of the philosophy curriculum aimed at depriving the dersanas of all vestiges of revelation. This he attempted to do by forcing pandits to abandon their way of teaching, which he thought was tantamount to indoctrination, and to adopt free debate instead."
Macaulay was the chief architect of educational policy and it was Lord William Bentinck (I'm sure we all remember this guy from our history textbooks in school) who introduced English as the Court language in India. He was very clear in his intentions of introducting English as Court language as seen in the letter of Court of Directors dated 29th July 1830 to Bengal :
".... From the meditated change in the language of public business, including judicial proceedings, you anticipate several collateral advantages, the principal of which is, that the judge, or other European officer, being thoroughly acquainted with the language in which the proceedings are held, will be, and appear to be, less dependent upon the natives by whom he is surrounded, and those natives will in consequence, enjoy fewer opportunities of bribery or other undue emolument."
Thus the interests of millions of Indians were sacrificed for the convenience and profit of a few Englishmen. Lord Bentinck was never in favour of educating the people of India in the real sense but he preferred anglicizing them, as he apprehended danger in spreading knowledge in this country. Bentinck's opinion is recorded in his Minutes dated 13th March, 1835. However, Charles Metcalf, Governor General of India, disagreeing with the views of Bentinck observed in his own Minute dated l6th May, 1835 :
"..... His Lordship (Bentinck), however, sees further danger in the spread of knowledge and the operations of the Press. I do not for my own part, anticipate danger as certain consequences from these causes."
The third architect, Sir Charles E. Trevelyan, brother-in-law of Macaulay, is so clear and explicit in his ideas that even his enemies will have to appreciate his candidness so explicit in his ideas, foresight, vision and judgment. In his Evidence given before the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Government of Indian Territories on 23rd June, 1853, he says:
"..... the effect of training in European learning is to give an entirely new turn to the native mind. The young men educated in this way cease to strive after independence according to the original Native model, and aim at, improving the instabilians of the country according to the English model, with the ultimate result of establishing constitutional self-govertunent. They cease to regard us as enemies and usurpers, and they look upon us as friends and patrons, and powerful beneficent persons, under whose protection all they have most at heart for the regeneration of their country will gradually be worked out. ....."
In a paper submitted to the (British) Parliamentary Committee of 1853 on Indian territories titled "The Political Tendency of the Different Systems of Education in use in India" by Sir Charles E. Trevelyan, brother-in-law of Macaulay says:
"..... The spirit of English literature, on the other hand, cannot but be favorable to the English connection. Familiarly acquainted with us by means of our literature, the Indian youth almost cease to regard us as foreigners. They speak of great men with the same enthusiasm as we do. Educated in the same way, interested in the same objects engaged in the same pursuits with ourselves, they become more English than Hindoos, just as the Roman provincial became more Romans than Gauls or Italians... Every community has its ideas of securing the universal principal,
"As long as the natives are left to brood over their former independence, their sole specific for improving their condition is, the immediate and total expulsion of the English.....' It is only by the infusion of European ideas, that a new direction can be given to the national views. The young men, brought up at our seminaries, turn with contempt from the barbarous despotism under which their ancestors groaned, to the prospect of improving their national institutions on the English model......"
"The natives will not rise against us, because we shall stoop to raise them; there will be no reaction, because there will be no pressure; the national activity will be fully and harmlessly employed in acquiring and diffusing European knowledge, and naturalizing European institutions. The educated classes, knowing that the elevation of their country on these principles can only be worked out under protection, will naturally cling to us. They even now do so..... and it will then be necessary to modify the political institutions to suit the increased intelligence of the people, and their capacity for self-government.... In following this course we should be buying no new experiment. The Romans at once civilized the nations of Europe, and attached them to their rule by Romancing them; or, in other words, by educating them in the Roman literature and arts and teaching them to emulate their conquerors instead of opposing them. Acquisitions made by superiority in war, were consolidated by superiority in the arts of peace; and the remembrance of the original violence was lost in that of the benefits which resulted from it. The provincials of Italy, Spain, Africa and Gaul, having no ambition except to imitate the Romans, and to share their privileges with them, remained to the last faithful subjects of the Empire;...... The Indian will, I hope soon stand in the same position towards us in which we once stood towards the Romans."
You can read mode details of how many ways were used to influence the Indian mind can be read in the links....
We know most of today's writers criticize Max Mueller (and other historians) Who by the way, I think did far less damage to India than Thomas Maccaulay and his cohorts. Today almost all the books we see in English about Vedas Upanishads etc base at least some of it on Max Mueller's translations. Very few people like Aurobindo, Dr.S.RadhaKrishnan and Eknath Eswaran.... made an attempt to write a original translation or commentary for all the works.
We never actually tried to recover from the damage that Maccaulay did to our education system. because Nehru was not comfortable talking about India's past with respect to Hinduism. (The word Hindu came into limited use only after Ghazni invavded India, and later Babur established his "Empire of Hind" It was the British who made this word "Hindoo" popular..... since then we refer to ourselves as Hindus)
Our minds are so colonized that... to this day we name our kids (Indian names) with British pronunciation. Gandhi wrote in the "Harijan" that Indian education made Indian students foreigners in their own country. The Radhakrishnan Commission said in their Report (1950); "one of the serious complaints against the system of education which has prevailed in this country for over a century is that it neglected India's past, that it did not provide the Indian students with a knowledge of their own culture. It had produced in some cases the feeling that we are without roots, and what is worse, that our roots bind us to a world very different from that which surrounds us".
And today we still follow the same style of education and never thought of improving (making popular) our native sciences or educating our children more about ourselves. With Arjun Singh (HRD Minister) vowing to return the education system back what Nehru has dreamed of and de-toxifying it of Hindu elements, I don't think we'll ever teach our kids to find Indian solutions to Indian problems (While teaching the other stuff)..... Instead we create a strong labor force that can cater to the needs of the developed nations.
here's what a present day missionary (& Nehruvian) has to say about Macaulay:
"We may question the logic and the arguments of Macaulay, particularly his diatribe against Indian culture, religion, theology, arts, and sciences. He wrote these words nearly 175 years ago, and as a representative of a ruling power. Some of his words certainly hurt us even today when we read him, and if he were to write to this generation, I have no doubt that he would have been perhaps more circumspect, and would have been "restrained by the necessity of paying a decent reverence to the practices of an established religion" (to slightly alter the words of Young 1935: viii). However, we all know that the number of Indians who wish to learn and use English has been growing steadily for the last two centuries. We all know that English has come to stay in India. The ruling Indian castes or classes have embraced English with suitable modifications as to the contents of lessons and the lexicon that are used in textbooks and taught in classes. English has become the language of higher castes and the affluent in the Indian subcontinent. The lower castes and poorer classes try to emulate the model set by their peers. The net result is that English will continue, and no central or state government will dare to abolish it from the curriculum in India. Globalization makes English a value added language, the access to which becomes a passport for jobs around the world."
http://www.languageinindia.com/april2003/macaulay.html
People like Azim Pemji and Narayana Murthy think that if we loose the BPO business from America, we should look for new avenues opening in Germany and Japan (Premji said this in an interview). I guess it suits very well with our education system.... cheap labor for the developed world.
Every Indian (with one or two exceptions) interviewed by Thomas Friedman (in India) on outsourcing.... admitted that America still has the creative advantage because of its education system.... basically they were bravely admitting that we are just cheap labor with no creative brains....
We don't have to go too deep to figure out our Higher education is lacking.... consider this....Our ECE engineers don't know how to do board (PCB) design even after passing out with distinction.......
We talked about the sorry state of primary education & literacy and now we know the problem with our higher education.
I rest my case about Indian Education system.
-keshav
http://www.ignca.nic.in/cd_06.htm (Cultural Dimension of Education)
http://www.indiatogether.org/opinions/pandey.htm
http://india_resource.tripod.com/britishedu.htm
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