Education: “Brown Englishmen”
The British overhauled the traditional Indian education system (Pathshalas and Madrasas).
- Macaulay’s Minute (1835): Thomas Macaulay argued for English education, dismissing Indian literature as inferior.
“A single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia.”
- Objective: To create a class of persons, “Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect,” who could serve as clerks in the administration.
Destruction of Village Governance
- Traditional: Indian villages were “little republics” (Charles Metcalfe) that managed their own affairs through Panchayats.
- Colonial: The British introduced a centralized bureaucracy and police system.
- Replaced customary law with complex British legal codes.
- Courts became expensive and conducted in a foreign language, alienating common people.
Cultural Theft
While the British initiated archaeology (ASI), they also engaged in the massive theft of cultural artifacts (statues, manuscripts, jewels like the Koh-i-Noor), filling European museums with Indian heritage.