Zainab Hussain
History 385
10/17/18
Paper 1
Topic: The British belief in White Superiority as reflected in their education policies
In the early nineteenth century, the British began to extend their expansive policies. The expansion that was initially just territorial, now began to invade the customs and traditions of the subcontinent. The British no longer wanted to emphasize their superiority through land annexations and conquests – they now wanted to penetrate into the very culture of the Indians and transform the subcontinent into an embodiment of the ‘great’ British Empire. To infiltrate the subcontinent with the notion of their superiority, the British knew they had to influence the system which served the purpose of imparting ideas and knowledge: education. “For the liberal, England’s superiority was unquestioned… Central to the liberal credo was education.”
A historical moment in this agenda to promote British superiority through education was the “Minute by the Hon'ble T. B. Macaulay” in February, 1835. This was a speech to the British Parliament by Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay, a law member of the council of the governor-general. Macaulay stated that for the progress of India, English must replace Arabic and Sanskrit because the English language was not only superior in terms of literature, arts and science but also that it would indoctrinate the Indians with better cultural and moral values: “We must at present do our best to form a class…of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect.” This speech is arguably the epitome of the racist supremacy of the British that targeted the education system for reasons discussed as follows.
In the Minute, Macaulay placed a lot of emphasis on proving English to be the language that was “best worth knowing”. He gave historical examples such as the development of Russia and argued that “the languages of western Europe civilised Russia”. He made the point that English is a language far more important than Sanskrit or Arabic and it will do for the Hindus what European languages did for the Russians. Macaulay stressed upon the clear superiority of the English language and by doing so, he pointed at the superiority of the European white race. He claimed that because Russia now had people educated in ‘superior’ languages, they were “in nowise inferior to the most accomplished men who adorn the best circles of Paris and London.” This statement signifies how the British believed with conviction that the white men of Europe were the most superior of species, and that rising to a level that matched theirs should be the ultimate goal of all.
After highlighting the superiority of English, Macaulay also felt the need to further underscore the superiority of the white race by trying to prove that the Indian race was indeed inferior to them. He made patronizing statements about the people of the subcontinent and degraded the Arabic and Sanskrit languages. He claimed that their literature“inculcated the most serious errors on the most important subjects” and “is a course hardly reconcilable with reason, with morality”. He mocked their cultural and religious beliefs, calling them “monstrous” and “superstitious” to reiterate that English was what was objectively right.
Macaulay referred to the British as “a nation of high intellectual attainments” who were undertaking the noble duty of overlooking “the education of a nation comparatively ignorant”. This represents the British point of view of them being so superior to the Indians that it was not just their choice but a duty to help the Indians, a highly inferior race. This points towards the concept of “White Man’s Burden” , an idea introduced by Rudyard Kipling in a poem about imperialism.
White Man’s Burden is notion that the White race began to think of colonialism as a noble act. They thought they were a race that was superior to the extent that invasion was not just not a wrong, but it was a noble act that became their duty because they were the greatest race – a duty that became a burden. White Man’s Burden addressed how the White race glorified colonialism and imperialism by pretending like they were gaining nothing from it, rather it was a burden to them because they were trying to help the rest of the world and make it better by bringing it up to the standards of the White race. This notion is deeply suggestive of White Superiority in that it labels them as the greatest race – one which all other races should strive to be like. And this is the mindset that Macaulay’s words epitomize by elevating the English language and race while jeering at the subcontinent’s people and culture. As Anirban Mitra wrote in an article for The Wire, “Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay sincerely believed it was the solemn British duty to enlighten the ‘heathens’ who lived in perpetual darkness outside Europe.”
It may be argued that all that has been discussed was the viewpoint of the Anglicists, those who promoted Western Education but there were many British people like Warren Hastings who supported the preservation of Indian culture and languages, known as the Orientalists. These Orientalists worked on translating English texts to Arabic and Sanskrit, and vice versa. Even though this seems sympathetic to the Indians and it is definitely better than Anglicism, it still preached White superiority. Translating English texts into local languages meant that the Orientalists still thought their literature and texts to be superior and impart better knowledge to the Indians than their local texts would. Translating Arabic and Sanskrit texts into English was hardly about recognizing the value of those texts, rather it was seen as a way to promote the learning of English by starting off by teaching local texts and culture in English. It was an idea that seemed more acceptable to the Indians as compared to introducing English and Western culture at the same time which would drive the Indians away altogether. The Orientalists were equally certain in their belief of White superiority and Macaulay did not shy away from addressing that too: “I have never found one among them [orientalist] who could deny that a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia.”
Lord William Bentinck, the governor general, concurred with Macaulay’s suggestions and they were slowly implemented. They meant to change education in a way that would keep White superiority alive in the Indians long after they would be gone, and they succeeded. Today, English language divides the socioeconomic classes of Pakistan and India, and success is reserved for those upper classes who are fluent in English and succumb to Western ideologies. People take pride in their English and are embarrassed by their native language and culture, promoting the very idea of white superiority that Macaulay fought for. The British people left but through their education policies, they also left their mark.
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