British Education in India
HY1101E
Article: Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859): On Empire and Education http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1833macaulay-india.asp In the early 19th century, India was colonised by the British and many social and political reforms were made during this period. These reforms brought about both positive and negative effects. One of the greatest reforms during this period was the implementation of the western education system in 1835. On the surface it seems like the western education system was implemented in India to improve the social conditions of the people. However, upon reading further, we realise that improving the lives of the Indians was not the motive for implementing the western education system. Educating the Indians was a profit-maximising tactic used by the British. The main reasons why the British wanted to educate the Indians were to convince them to adopt the western culture, to form the basis of western civilisation, to understand the value of British goods and buy them and to fill up the middle level jobs. This also reveals to us the British attitudes towards the Indians and how they were treated in the early 19th century. The western education differs from the traditional Indian education system and impacted the Indian community both positively and negatively. This essay will discuss whether the British education was beneficial and examine its effects on the Indian society.
During the British rule from 1757 to 1857, the Indians spoke mainly in their mother tongue language. There were several mother tongue languages in India during that period thus they spoke a dozen different languages. The most commonly spoken languages were Arabic and Sanskrit. However, when it comes to educating the people, it was decided that it will be done in English because of several reasons as mentioned by Thomas Babington Macaulay. Firstly, ‘English was spoken by the ruling class and higher class of natives at the seats of government’. Thus, they wanted
Article: Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859): On Empire and Education http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1833macaulay-india.asp In the early 19th century, India was colonised by the British and many social and political reforms were made during this period. These reforms brought about both positive and negative effects. One of the greatest reforms during this period was the implementation of the western education system in 1835. On the surface it seems like the western education system was implemented in India to improve the social conditions of the people. However, upon reading further, we realise that improving the lives of the Indians was not the motive for implementing the western education system. Educating the Indians was a profit-maximising tactic used by the British. The main reasons why the British wanted to educate the Indians were to convince them to adopt the western culture, to form the basis of western civilisation, to understand the value of British goods and buy them and to fill up the middle level jobs. This also reveals to us the British attitudes towards the Indians and how they were treated in the early 19th century. The western education differs from the traditional Indian education system and impacted the Indian community both positively and negatively. This essay will discuss whether the British education was beneficial and examine its effects on the Indian society.
During the British rule from 1757 to 1857, the Indians spoke mainly in their mother tongue language. There were several mother tongue languages in India during that period thus they spoke a dozen different languages. The most commonly spoken languages were Arabic and Sanskrit. However, when it comes to educating the people, it was decided that it will be done in English because of several reasons as mentioned by Thomas Babington Macaulay. Firstly, ‘English was spoken by the ruling class and higher class of natives at the seats of government’. Thus, they wanted