Macaulayism

Macaulayism is not a bed of thorns but it had so many roses which played an important role in a way in shaping the global providence as it exists today.

Let us evaluate with honest acknowledgment rather than hypocritical criticism.

Macaulay never forced Indians to give up their tradition or culture.

Hypothetically the best preferable quality of any social life system, like biological life system, is willing and automatic adoptability which is pleasant and promotes peaceful co-existence benefitting the maximum number and most importantly without harming or extremely hurting others in an enterprise of sharing and caring with compassion for other human beings and also concern for other species and the environment. This may sound very idealistic but then imagine what a type of excellent existence we would be having then.

Sanathan Dharma more or less fits in this stream of ideology as its greatest quality is tolerance and acknowledgement and acceptance of facts and reality.

As I am writing this article on a very often debated and very sensitive topic I have given lot of links to many articles a few by me and other by some scholars. So obviously reading would be a bit long and cumbersome, probably you can switch on to the links after you read the whole article undisturbed but if you patiently go through all the materials you will definitely get a overall view of the subject, get enlightened and also understand why I decided to take on the of recently cropping trend of majority of blind critics who criticize everything that Macaulay did. He is not a villain and all the practices of Sanathana Dharma and all the people practicing it were not that weak or that foolish to get uprooted or made to change course by a single individual called Macaulay without any reason or by force or compulsion.

So we need not react either with puerile and paranoid servitude or protest with parochial protectionism. By doing these we reduce the greatness and inherent strength of Sanathan Dharma and its practioners from the path which has always advocated using the two wings of  practical wisdom along with spiritual enlightenment to soar in life and instead we would be  confusing and veering them away.

These three quotes must be remembered as important mantras

1] "We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality."  Ayn Rand 

2] “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” John Adams​.

3] " God is UNITY but always works in VARIETY" RALPH W.EMERSON

Let us not resort to blind generalizations or unloving criticism of everything without making an in depth analysis and evaluation of any event and/or activity of any individual in their contexts historical, social, psychological etc

We need to plough through the whole literature available with us on evolutionary biology, evolutionary sociology, evolutionary philosophy, evolutionary scientific progress, evolutionary psychology etc to have a better understanding of why certain things happen the way they do? In the places they do? At specific times as they do? Not as passive spectators but as discerning diligent denizens.

Every period/age in history and every region in different periods are impacted and influenced by certain predominant trends which may disturb and /or weaken the traditions, existing belief systems etc and/or further strengthen them up.

In every period similarly some dominating obsession or highly powerful or influential or strong impact causing event or individual may change the course of things. Again these too may either disturb the traditions and/or existing belief systems or further strengthen them up.

In majority of the cases they have contributed to the transition from tradition to transformation either better, best and/or bad [I prefer using this to phrase rather than the usual good, bad or ugly as it contains more negative terms].

Whenever these things happen there will be inevitably collateral damages and/or incidental benefits. We must evaluate both of them without any prejudice or fanatical affiliation to our comfort zones or traditions or jumping into grab what enters in out of rank opportunism.

Let us respect these facts over half- hearted, heated and/or hypocritical reactions/responses based on our ethnocentric affinities to language or culture or tradition and be pragmatic

“ Brief journey of civilization.

In very simplistic terms the earliest known periods of civilization human beings had less communication, less information, less knowledge, more brutality, more animalistic life style like cannibalism, continuous wars etc with little to care about the requirements of resources for usage and survival; it was followed by greedy instinct to have and posses more resources and areas leading to too many silly wars; followed by collective emotional entertainments leading to many traditional and cultural art forms; followed by urge to communicate leading to reduction in number of languages so that more people could be communicated to and that’s why while everything else in nature and society proliferated in number the languages alone  kept reducing from several thousands to a few hundreds and even out of these few hundred only some 20 plus are in great use now [http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2010/02/our-language-policy-hypocrisy.html]; then civilization was pulled  by fear of the unknown aspects of life leading to creation of many gods, gods out of heroic and exemplary figures, religions and rituals; followed by parleys into experimenting with different social systems/political systems to live together with justifiable contribution to and share from/of  the resources; followed by scientific discoveries to enhance understanding and help living comfortably and lead a life away from and besides the clutches of religions and traditions; followed by the recent centuries of dominance based on initially economic and commercial prosperity which may be called the real GODS of modern age and to achieve this by various means at national levels through discoveries of more resources and raw materials useful for human life, through real industrialization, improved and increased agricultural production etc or through dominance by military power trying to loot readymade where these things are available etc, and at  individual level trying to equip oneself in the best possible manner to decently survive in this rat race of achieving economic and commercial prosperity. This is of course definitely the only one aspect of life but a very vital aspect of social living at present.

The march of civilization through all these various stages have produced in its stride many collateral damages and incidental benefits as well as thrown up excellent exponents in various areas of life.

One of the collateral damage of the predominant factor of present age, namely economic and commercial prosperity, is competition in all walks of life and therefore comparison which cannot be wished away. Though we can always choose not to be affected and/or influenced by it or try our best and vie with the rest to become the best. Choice is always ours.”[ from http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2013/10/why-all-of-us-have-tendency-to-compare.html].

The west by its very nature has always psychologically pursued and socially enforced homogenization and hegemonizing. That has been their modus operandi. It has worked for them to their advantage and caused misery for the rest therefore they have struck to that without realizing that nature is a manifestation variety with an underlying unity.[ http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2010/11/west-needs-to-change-its-obsession-to.html] and this is one of the main reason why peace and harmony are eluding human society [http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2009/10/peace-and-non-violence-harmony-and.html]

We  can debate here are some good write ups by some scholars The Confused Hindu:Victim of Macaulayism by Sita RamGoel[http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2013/10/the-confused-hindu-victim-of.html]

another one [http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2013/10/macauleys-children-by-subhash-kak.html]

 

but  we need to foray into all the contexts/situations take into consideration all the factors that led to those situations or played their role as they have in those situations [http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2012/04/i-have-always-maintained-that-nothing.html]

 

 and in a way even morality is just contextual [http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/balayogiv-1483224-morality-contextual/

http://www.scribd.com/doc/101199648/Morality-is-Just-Contextual]

and take into consideration all the factors [http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2011/12/gather-knowledge-from-as-many-sources.html]

Let us touch our hearts and without any prejudice, populism pandering preaching plainly acknowledge the benefits we have reaped through Macaulayan system, the English tongue etc [http://contentwriteups.blogspot.in/2013/06/english-its-impact-and-importance-for.html]

The benefits that this single individual’s [Macaulay’s] dictate imparted to people, who were practicing Sanathan Dharma, and to the rest of the world far outweighs the smaller changes in life styles and traditions that it may have caused as a collateral damage.

I shall elucidate just a few examples of these benefits confining myself to the Indian and Sanathan Dharmic arena.

All the tall leaders who were part of freedom struggle could negotiate/interact with the colonial rulers were those who became very proficient in the Macaulayan system of education starting from Mahatma gandhiji, Dr. B.R.Ambedkar, a man of great erudition to Chakravarthi Rajaji to Dr.S.Radhakrishnan etc.

All knowledge of the intrinsically important aspects of Sanathan Dharma, namely the concepts and philosophical and scientific  inquiries into life and cosmos etc were brought in the arena of the outer world beyond the confines of a few selected monks only through the great Swami Vivekannada a person who was a great master of Macaulayan system.

In fact for all practical purposes Macaulayan system is one of the best ladders for social advancement and global acceptance or penetration.

It is this ability and willingness of many Indians to not only adopt but to master the Macaulayan system that we were a preferred destination for the IT outsourcing industry rather than China.

There are many more examples.