Colonial Discourse in English Language Education in India: A Study of Thomas Macaulay’s “Minute on Indian Education”

This article examines the policy of teaching English language by the British colonial system in India in the nineteenth century. During this century, Orientalist debates in Britain on the contents and how-ness of education in India under the British colonial rule were entirely preoccupied British elite society. Among these views and discussions, the short essay entitled “Minute on Indian Education” by the English historian and politician Thomas Babingotn Macaulay in 1835 attracted much attention. In his essay, Macaulay wrote that anglicized Hindus must be created who has the role of intermediaries between the colonized Hindus and British colonialists. Therefore, in this article, the researcher aims to apply the theory of Orientalism coined by the Palestinian-American critic Edward Said in order to analyze the influence and policy of the colonial scheme of English language education in nineteenth century India. Furthermore, the long-term consequences of Macaulay’s policy in the field of teaching English language and colonial literature will be addressed as well.