Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Macaulay's Children are English in Taste

The term Macaulay's Children is used to refer to people born of Indian ancestry who adopt Western culture as a lifestyle, or display attitudes influenced by (British)colonisers. The term is usually used in a derogatory fashion, and the connotation is one of disloyalty to one's country and one's heritage. This frame of mind or attitude is also referred to as Macaulayism.

The passage to which the term refers is from his Minute on Indian Education, delivered in 1835. It reads,

“It is impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body of the people. We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters 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 in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I can recall a movie named ABCD from this post. I guess the term ABCD stood for American Born Confused Desis. The movie also reflects the same problem. I guess the problem arises mostly when a family movies from Indian Sub Continent to a Western country for good. Since the parents are born desis while the childeren are desis by their blood line only, so the parents cant leave their cultural values while it becomes very difficult for the childeren to follow the culture of their parents.