English in India is its own language, but has it brought Indians together or set them apart?

In March 2023, I attended a literature festival in Chandigarh where one of the speakers, Sankrant Sanu, author of The English Medium Myth: Dismantling Barriers to India’s Growth, spoke about the need for higher education to be conducted in regional languages. He asserted that there are many intelligent people in India who don’t have access to early English education and are thus excluded from further studies in Medicine, Law, and Engineering.

Sanu’s thinking does not exist in isolation. It is a consequence of a widely viewed statement by the prime minister that states that India must separate itself from the Macaulay Mindset, set itself free from the colonial trap and bring back its own cultural and educational foundations.

So, what is this Macaulay Mindset, and what did Thomas Babington Macaulay say on that fateful day in 1835 that his statement to this day is referred to as the Macaulay Minute? He said that, “a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia.” He also stated that his goal was to create “a class of persons Indian in blood and colour but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect.”

The beginnings

According to many, he did just that. While...

Read more