Addressing the Ramnath Goenka Lecture in Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused Congress of carrying forward the thinking of Thomas Babbington Macaulay. He said that the next 10 years are very important because in 2035 it will be 200 years since Macaulay’s education system was implemented. Appealing to the people of the country, the PM said that we have to take a pledge that we will get freedom from the slavery mentality with which Macaulay has filled India.
‘Macaulay broke the back of India’s education system’
PM Modi said, “In India’s education system, we were taught to be proud of our culture. In India’s education system, there was equal emphasis on skills along with studies, hence Macaulay was determined to break the back of India’s education system and was successful in it. Macaulay ensured that the British language and British thinking got more recognition during that period and India bore the brunt of it in the coming centuries.”
Macaulay broke our confidence: PM Modi
He said, “Macaulay broke our self-confidence, instilled inferiority complex within us. He threw our entire way of life into the dustbin in one stroke. From there, the seed was sown that if Indians want to do something, they will have to do it in foreign ways only and this kind of sentiment became stronger after independence. The feeling of being proud of what is ours started decreasing.”
The Prime Minister said, “There was no one to question the Swadeshi that Mahatma Gandhi had made the basis of independence. We started looking for models of governance abroad. We started looking abroad for innovation. It was this mentality due to which the tendency to consider imported ideas, imported goods and services as superior was established in the society.”
‘The opposite happened in India regarding historical heritage’
PM Modi said, “In whichever country tourism has flourished, the people there are proud of their historical heritage. The opposite happened here. In India, after independence, only efforts were made to abuse our heritage. When we are not proud of our heritage, it will not be conserved. When it is not conserved, we will keep treating it like the ruins of bricks and stones, and that is exactly what happened.”
We have no opposition to English language: PM Modi
He said, “Countries like Japan, China and Korea, which adopted many foreign methods, but still kept the language as their own. Therefore, in our new education policy, we have emphasized on studies in local languages. We are not against the English language, we are in support of Indian languages.”
The PM said, “In 2035, it will be 200 years since the crime committed by Macaulay in 1835, so I want to appeal to the country that in the next 10 years, we have to take a pledge that we will get freedom from the mentality of slavery that Macaulay had instilled in India.”