Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Alissa Caton on Macaulay, etc.

http://journals.chapman.edu/ojs/index.php/VocesNovae/article/view/202/535
Provides some more context.

Macaulay's unique imperial discourse found in his "Minute" can be better understood by exploring Macaulay as an historian. His most famous historical writing was his History of England published in 1848. Even though this came after the "Minute on Education," the History was a process and a goal of Macaulay during his time in India. His knowledge and opinions of England combined with his experiences of empire in India influenced Macaulay's overall view of history and the role it should play in every nation as well as answering why England was so exceptional compared to every nation. By understanding Macaulay's opinions on England and its history, it becomes clear why he so fiercely advocated for Anglicist reform in the "Minute".
Posted by Arun at 10:47 PM

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CIP · 635 weeks ago

Macaulay's reverence for Greece, Rome and England shaped all his views and actions, and no doubt played a role in his refusal to engage with the civilization of the East. Nonetheless, the India he found when he got there was a thorough mess. The old order had collapsed from both the effects of English rule and the pre-existing internal decay of the Mughal empire. Previous ruling princes had been reduced to puppets selected for docility and left, or kept, as uneducated playboys. Macaulay had a vision of a new Indian elite, educated in western thought (and English), and his intellectual prototypes already existed in men like Roy and Tagore.

My guess is that his reluctance to learn about Indian civilization owed a lot to a fear that he would be captured and enchanted by it, and that that enchantment would sap his reformist zeal - or at least undermine his intellectual self-confidence.
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macgupta 81p · 635 weeks ago

I think the Alissa Caton note says something quite different.

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