Friday, August 17, 2007

Is this true?

Lord Macaulay’s address to the British Parliament in 2 February, 1835.

I have traveled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief, such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation.


If this is true, then they have succeeded. And how!!!

:-(

2 comments:

Hrishi said...

Update:
Turns out that its an urban legend. But uncannily true :(

zac said...

RSS propoganda.

Macaulay proposed building up a servile English educated middle class whom they could rule, and who would, in turn rule the rest of the unruly millions.

That model is not yet outdated. It is practised today by (sad to say), every MNC in India (like HLL, P&G, Coca Cola, IBM, etc), who hire good looking and english speaking desi managers to control the rest of their company, their distributors and the government agents in India.

The rest is pure rubbish, whether Macualay said it or not!

India was historically a country of mendicants, starving yogis and populations bent double under the weight of the jiziya taxes imposed upon them by numerous Muslim overlords for 800 years, when the Brits took over. "Not one beggar" my foot!

And, for the record, we had already been "truly dominated" by Mongols, Arabs, Persians, Turks and Afghans for over 800 years before the English arrived! The last Indian empire on record was under Harshavardhan in 600 CE. It has been nothing but foreign rule for India since then!