December 06, 2018 Thursday
Bedtime Story
Lord Macaulay's 1833 Speech
Tonight we shall continue with the speech
of Lord Macaulay that was delivered in the House of Commons in the year of 1833
concerning the future of Hindus and Moslems of India:
“Or do we mean to awaken ambition and to
provide it with no legitimate vent?
Who will any of these questions in the
affirmative?
Yet one of them must be answered in the
affirmative, by every person who maintains that we ought permanently to exclude
the natives from high office.
I have no fears.
The path of duty is plain before us: and it
is also the path of wisdom, of national prosperity, of national honor.
The destinies of our Indian empire are
covered with thick darkness.
It is difficult to form any conjecture as
to the fate reserved for a state which resembles no other in history, and which
forms itself a separate class of political phenomena.
The laws which regulate its growth and its
decay are still unknown to us.
It may be that the public mind of India may
expand under our system till it has outgrown that system; that by good government
we may educate our subjects into a capacity for better government, that, having
become instructed in European knowledge, they may, in some future age, demand
European institutions.
Whether such a day will come I know not.
But never will I attempt to avert it or to
retard it.
Whenever it comes, it will be the proudest
day in English history.
To have found a great people sunk in the
lowest depths of slavery and superstition, to have so ruled them as to have
made them desirous and capable of all the privileges of citizens would indeed
be a title to glory all our own.
The scepter may pass away from us.
Unforeseen accidents may derange our most
profound schemes of policy.
Victory may be inconstant to our arms.
But there are triumphs which are followed
by no reverses.
There is an empire exempt from all natural
causes of decay.
Those triumphs are the pacific triumphs of
reason over barbarism; that empire is the imperishable empire of our arts and
our morals, our literature and our laws”
This is truly a remarkable address for two
reasons:
One that it highlights the kind of social
state the people of South Asia were in; it is estimated that the literacy rate
then was half of post-independence level which was 18.33% in 1951.
The phrase “The destinies of our Indian
empire are covered with thick darkness” is chilling.
Stay tuned to the voice of an
average story storytelling chimpanzee or login at http://panarrans.blogspot.com
Good night Mon Ami and my fellow cousin ape.
Advertisements
Another great educator and a teacher that I am aware of is
Professor Subhashish Chattopadhyay in Bangalore, India.
While I narrate stories, Professor Subhashish an electronic
engineer and a former professor at BARC, does and teaches real mathematics and
physics.
He started the participation of Indian students at the
International Physics Olympiad.
Do visit him here:
All his books can be downloaded for free through this link:
For edutainment and English education of your children, I
recommend this large collection of Halloween Songs for Kids:
No comments:
Post a Comment