INSIGHT UPSC QUIZ

GS History Modern India
Q.

Which of the following statements regarding Macaulay's Minute on Education is/are correct?

1. It became a blueprint for introduction of English education in India.

2. It favored the Anglicists view point on medium of instruction of education.

3. It promoted the idea of downward filtration theory of education in India.

Select the correct answer using the code given below.

Explanation:

Statement 1 is correct. It was believed that modernisation of India would come through English education and the dissemination of knowledge of the Western sciences. When William Bentinck, a Utilitarian reformist, took over as governor general in 1828 and Thomas Babington Macaulay was appointed the law member in his council in 1834, the latter was immediately appointed the President of the General Committee of Public Instruction. On 2 February 1835 he issued his famous Minute on Indian Education, which became the blueprint for the introduction of English education in India. Full of contempt for Oriental learning, Macaulay's Minute asserted that "a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia". What he advocated, therefore, for the Indians was an education in European literature and sciences, inculcated through the medium of English language. Such an education, he argued, would create "a class of persons 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 intellect". Bentinck immediately endorsed his proposals in an executive order of 7 March 1835, and did not budge from this position despite loud protests from the Orientalists,

Statement 2 is correct. ORIENTALIST-ANGLICIST CONTROVERSY Within the General Committee on Public Instruction, the Anglicists argued that the government spending on education should be exclusively for modern studies. The Orientalists said while western sciences and literature should be taught to prepare students to take up jobs, emphasis should be placed on expansion of traditional Indian learning. Even the Anglicists were divided over the question of medium of instruction—one faction was for English language as the medium, while the other faction was for Indian languages (vernaculars) for the purpose. Unfortunately there was a great deal of confusion over English and vernacular languages as media of instruction and as objects of study. Lord Macaulay's Minute (1835), This famous minute settled the row in favour of Anglicists—the limited government resources were to be devoted to teaching of western sciences and literature through the medium of English language alone.

Statement 3 is correct. The British planned to educate a small section of upper and middle classes, thus creating a class "Indian in blood and colour but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect" who would act as interpreters between the Government and masses and would enrich the vernaculars by which knowledge of western sciences and literature would reach the masses. This was called the 'downward filtration theory'. Modern ideas, if not education, did filter down to the masses, though not in a form desired by the rulers, but through political parties, press, pamphlets, public platforms, etc. Modern education only helped this process by making available the basic literature on physical and social sciences to nationalists, thus stimulating their capacity to make social analysis—otherwise the content, structure and curricula of modern education served colonial interests.

Thus, Option D is Correct.

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