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BY ANIRBAN MIT RA ON 19/02/2017 • 18 COMMENTS

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Macaulay's Speech That Was Never Delivered https://thewire.in/110263/macaulays-speech-never-delivered/

An illustration of Thomas Babington Macaulay. Credit: Wikimedia Commons

We live in times of fake news and made-up history. From Padmini of

Chittor to the battle of Haldighati to ‘Bhagat Singh was hanged on
February 14’, there’s no stopping the barrage of ‘alternative facts,’ and
not surprisingly, it is social media that is the carrier of such
information. In this scenario, it would not be wrong to presume that
most readers have come across this ‘shared post’ more than once on
social media. It keeps on circulating on the web, repeatedly proving
how much Macaulay – and his colonial brethren – hated India’s
cultural heritage. The implication is that Macaulay’s ‘desi’ children i.e.
those Indians who are educated in a western setup, are a despicable
racist imposition.

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The quote by Lord Macaulay. Courtesy: Anirban Mitra

Historians agree that racist supremacy was, at least since the

beginning of the 19th century, a defining feature of the angrez
mindset. Also, that Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859)
sincerely believed it was the solemn British duty to enlighten the
‘heathens’ who lived in perpetual darkness outside Europe. But is this
particular speech authentic? Did he actually say these words? Or is it
but another example of information fabrication that is part of political
propaganda, something increasingly common in an internet-trusted
world?

It is notoriously difficult to disprove something that probably does

not exist. How can one be absolutely certain that some obscure piece
of evidence has not been missed? Fortunately, the post itself provides
a starting point. It states that the quote is from a speech that
Macaulay delivered at the British parliament on February 2, 1835.
Now, that is certainly verifiable in the archives at Westminster.

However, one need not go so far because T.B. Macaulay was in

Calcutta, not London, on February 2, 1835. And, given that even the
fastest ships took a few months to travel between London and

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Calcutta, the Whig politician could not have been at both places on
the same day. In fact, Macaulay left England in 1834 to take up his
new assignment as an advisor to the British Governor General and did
not return till 1838. Thus, the first piece of ‘evidence’ turns out to be a
poorly concocted lie.

But what if the speech was made at the governor’s house in Calcutta?
Fortunately, the ‘Minute [on Indian education] by the Hon’ble T.B.
Macaulay, dated February 2, 1835’ has survived (http://www.columbia.edu
/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/macaulay/txt_minute_education_1835.html).
It is an interesting speech and exemplifies his beliefs. The notable
point, however, is that the words ‘I have travelled across the length
and breadth of India…. a truly dominated nation’ are not present in it.
Neither is the quote included in the several volumes of Letters of
Thomas Babington Macaulay (http://admin.cambridge.org/fk/academic
/subjects/literature/english-literature-1830-1900/letters-thomas-babington-
macaulay-volume-2?format=PB&isbn=9780521088978#bookPeople)(edited by
Thomas Pinney, Cambridge University Press). This is confirmatory
that Macaulay, although a committed racist, did not use these words.
The quote, that has acquired legitimacy by the Goebbels way of
repeating a lie, is almost certainly a hoax.

There is other evidence within the text itself that indicate it is of

recent origin. Firstly, the language is ‘too modern’ and hence very
different from official correspondence of the 19th century. There is a
compositional awkwardness – the use of the words ‘foreign’ and
‘English’ – and ‘selfesteem’ is too nasty a spelling mistake for a
literary figure of Macaulay’s stature – the imperial politician was also
a historian and poet (‘Horatius at the Bridge’ is one of his oft-quoted
poems.)

In addition, there are substantial factual errors. Is it believable that

Macaulay travelled the ‘length and breadth of the country’ and yet did
not come across a single beggar? That too, at a time, when British rule
was already causing the famous ‘drain of wealth’ from India? Or even
a fakir or sadhu? Or did he not get to know of any theft at a time
when the infamous cult of thugee terrorised large parts of north and

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central India? Were there absolutely no criminal cases being tried at

the Calcutta, Bombay and Madras high courts in 1835? And, ‘I do not
think we would ever conquer this country unless’ is perhaps the worst
mistake of all. By 1835, the colonial conquest of India was effectively
complete with only one significant power – the Sikh empire – left to
be subdued. It is too naïve to assume that Macaulay was living in the
past. It is easier to conclude that whoever drafted this forgery is
terribly ignorant of even the basics of Indian history.

However, does this all mean that Macaulay was an Indophile who is
being wronged? Not at all. Macaulay was undoubtedly a colonial
apologist and racist who passionately believed there was no ‘culture’
beyond Europe. This is evident even from his ‘minutes of 2nd Feb,
1835’ where he said, “…a single shelf of a good European library was
worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia…’’ and

“… I certainly never met with any orientalist who ventured to

maintain that the Arabic and Sanscrit poetry could be compared
to that of the great European nations. But when we pass from
works of imagination to works in which facts are recorded and
general principles investigated, the superiority of the Europeans
becomes absolutely immeasurable. It is, I believe, no
exaggeration to say that all the historical information which has
been collected from all the books written in the Sanscrit
language is less valuable than what may be found in the most
paltry abridgements used at preparatory schools in England…’’
Is it believable that the same man would utterly contradict
himself in the same speech by saying, “…we break the very
backbone of this nation which is her spiritual and cultural
heritage….”

Furthermore, it was from his erroneous, yet arrogant assessment of

Indian civilisation that Macaulay advised, “…We have to educate a
people who cannot at present be educated by means of their mother-
tongue. We must teach them some foreign language. The claims of
our own language it is hardly necessary to recapitulate… Whoever

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knows that language has ready access to all the vast intellectual
wealth which all the wisest nations of the earth have created… we
shall see the strongest reason to think that, of all foreign tongues, the
English tongue is that which would be the most useful to our native
subjects…”

It is evident that Macaulay’s understanding of India was awful. But,

not unlike David Hare and Lord Bentinck, he was passionate about
spreading the fruits of European enlightenment to Indians. His
beliefs were racist, but he certainly was not the cultural-Nazi that the
hoax tries to portray him. And, although Macaulay would perhaps
have bristled at it, several of the freedom fighters would be products
of English education – another proof of the ignorance of who created
this post.

That is quite a bit of evidence against something that never existed.

However, how was this forgery born? Over the past few years, at least
few netizens have tried to enquire about its origins. Interestingly, a
fine investigation has been done by noted Hindutva-inclined
ideologue Koenraad Elst. It seems that the earliest reference of this
hoax comes from a book titled The Awakening Ray, Vol. 4, No. 5,
which was published by the Gnostic Centre and subsequently picked
up by the Indian magazine Niti in 2002. Notably, there it was
preceded by “His words were to the effect’’. Thus, it was not a
verbatim quote and today the Wikiquote page on T.B. Macaulay
categorically lists it as ‘misattributed’. Yet, the popularity of this
shoddy bluff has refused to die down, probably because it is in sync
with the average netizen’s misunderstanding of the Indian history. It
was quoted by L.K. Advani and A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and often used in
debates on prime-time television.

Of course, this hoax is not an exception. There are several more like
the ‘letter from Jwaharlal Nehru to Mr. Clement Attlee, Prime
Minister of England, 10, Down Street’. They are chilling reminders of
the blind usage of ‘google search’ and social media for knowledge
acquisition and dispersion.

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Jawaharlal Nehru’s letter to Clement Attlee. Courtesy: Anirban Mitra

Interestingly, many netizens are increasingly cautious of such hoax

traps, and so someone designed a popular cautionary note, which also
circulated on social media. It is attributed to Abraham Lincoln, and it
says, ‘Don’t believe everything you read on the internet just because
there’s a picture with a quote next to it. ’ As the saying would go, set a
hoax to catch a hoax.

What to read next:

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xxx society • 14 days ago

I don't know it happened or not. But he was a spreader of cancer in
India. The cancer destroyed Indian culture, spirituality, our ancient
knowledge researches. They came to loot us but they found people
like the author and they raped us.
• Reply • Share ›

Pratibha Jain • 17 days ago

An interesting post and a strong case. Surely the "style of language"
argument is a valid factor here.
• Reply • Share ›

Bala Subrahmanyam P. • a month ago

Thanks for setting the record straight, sir!
P.Bala Subrahmanyam
• Reply • Share ›

Sam Nelson • a month ago

It had nothing to do with enlightening the Indians, it was, all about
robbing them blind, and they did rob the Indians blind, blind to this
very day.
Worse than a plague, the landing of the English boats was a death
sentence.
These ambassadors did their job well, the King is on his throne, his
Banks control the World's money, wealth and populace, all we have
to do is free (ourselves) from the web of hate and deceit his agents

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