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By fiercely and persistently criticizing British legacy in India ushered in by Thomas Babbinhton Macaulay it is possible that the baby may be thrown along with the bathwater.
Macaulay had an agenda to denounce everything ennobling in Indian culture and make of them clerks of the British Empire. By quoting exclusively on his speech to the exclusion of all else that came thereafter
the government of this day without consulting other states in the South East and West is doing a monumental disservice to India as it stands today well respected among the nation's of the world.
The British came as conquerors to do what all conquerors have done since time immemorial - to enslave and loot. They did that to the hilt. Britain became Great by impoverishing India.
What is forgotten is that it was the British who freed Hindus from one thousand years of enslavement under Muslim rule.
Thomas Babington Macaulay's primary legislative bequest to India was his work in establishing the foundation for its modern legal and educational systems, most notably drafting the Indian Penal Code and advocating for the English Education Act of 1835.
There was a major change however from the loot by East India Company after the War of Independence when India came directly under the Crown. By then the rulers started believing that India and Great Britain would remain together indefinitely. They started sending their best and brightest to administer India. ICS became the finest civil service in the world.
It should be recalled that it was Governor General Lord William Bentinck
who abolished Sati one of the cruelest forms of torture devised by man whereby girls often in their teens were burned alive on the funeral pyre of their husbands.
The same Governor General abolished Thagi that had been plaguing travellers for centuries. He entrusted the task to Captain Sleeman who spent the best years of his life to complete the task entrusted to him. The dedication and commitment of Sleeman who studied their customs learned their language and after destroying their hard core turned them around is remembered to this day.
An Englishman dedicating his life to a country he began to love. He was among legions of his countrymen who devoted their life to Hindustan. Many never went back. Why wasn't such love and commitment shown by Indians before the British. Eighty years after the English left can the rulers of today who wish to eliminate every trace of colonial legacy highlight similar lifetime devotion and commitment without personal reward.
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Vedic knowledge and practice of their religion by over ninety percent of Indians of that time were ruthlessly suppressed burned and destroyed. The burning of Nalanda University the most advanced seat of learning of the time teaching SIXTy disciplines was a monumental loss to humankind at par with the burning of the Library of Alexandria.
The Muslim rulers destroyed many architectural marvels of the time before them. However they created several Islamic monuments of exceptional beauty. The Taj Mahal in Agra being it's finest example.
The British took it upon themselves to restore the destroyed monuments of the earlier period The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) was started by Sir Alexander Cunningham in 1861, who also became its first Director-General, establishing it to systematically explore, document, and preserve India's ancient monuments and cultural heritage during the British Raj. A lifetime commitment and dedication to India.
Most knowledgeable Indians of today know that British administrators and scholars who learned Sanskrit were struck dumb by the depth and elevation of Vedic writings philosophy and thought. It is through their lifetime of learning and translations into European languages that the world and many Indians themselves became aware of the sublime reaches of Indic heritage.
The Light of Asia" is an epic poem by Sir Edwin Arnold about the life of Prince Gautama Siddhartha, the founder of Buddhism, published in 1879. The poem became a sensation, introducing many in the West to the Buddha and his teachings through its poetic narrative. It was an adaptation from the Lalitavistara Sutra and made Buddha's life and philosophy widely known across the world. Tens of thousand editions continued to be published till the in end of the century and beyond.
The Song Celestial: A Poetic Version of the Bhagavad Gita is a translation of the Bhagavad Gita from Sanskrit into English by Sir Edwin Arnold, first published in 1885. The translation following The Light of Asia, his narrative-poem of the Lalitavistara Sutra.
Mahatma Gandhi is said to have kept them by his bedside.
The Theosophical Society is a global spiritual movement, founded in 1875 by Helena Blavatsky and Henry Olcott, that seeks universal brotherhood, promotes comparative study of religions/philosophies/sciences, and investigates nature's hidden laws, blending Eastern wisdom (Hinduism, Buddhism) with Western esotericism, with its international headquarters in Adyar, India, significantly influencing Indian nationalism and social reform through figures like Annie Besant.
The number of eminent scholars who made Vedic studies their life long commitment and brought them to the world are legion. One of the best known names is Max Muller.
Max Müller and Swami Vivekananda shared a deep mutual admiration, connecting through their profound interest in Indian philosophy (Vedanta) and Sanskrit; Vivekananda saw Müller as a spiritual brother, even suggesting he was the reborn Vedic commentator Saya?a, while praising his service to India, despite noting some Western biases in his interpretations, and Müller, in turn, deeply respected Vivekananda as a true disciple of Sri Ramakrishna, inviting him to his home and expressing great hope for Vedanta's future through him, solidifying a bond between Eastern and western Western philosophy.
Arthur Schopenhauer the German philosopher known for his pessimistic writings after being exposed to Buddhist and Hindu texts is reported to have said that his existential anxieties were at rest.
British Legacy continued
The Subcontinent of India since recorded history and the mythological age before that was never united under a single ruler till the arrival of the British. Under them India was united in its entirety from Kanyakumari to Kashmir and from Chittagong to Khyber. (The Afghan areas upto Khyber were brought under the Sikh Empire of Maharaja Ranjit Singh with his capital at Lahore). In sum the unification and modernization of India remains the enduring British legacy to India.
What is more they endowed India with a beautiful brand new Capital New Delhi built in concentric circles around Raisina Hill
Nepal was obliged to cede territory in the northeast around Darjeeling as well as Kumaon and Garhwal in what is now Uttarakhand.
The Younghusband expedition of 1901 opened Tibet to India.
Within India they created some of the most famous Ports of the time at Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. Railway Road and Postal and Telegraph networks linked every corner to the centre.
The hill stations created by them were some of the most beautiful in the world. (What has happened to them after the post-legacy Indians took over the less said the better.
While the rulers in London continued to find ways to enrich themselves the administrators who came immersed themselves whole heartedly in the welfare of India and its people. Numberless of them stayed on and became native. Those who went back after a lifetime of service found themselves misfits in their home country.
Indian army was officered entirely by the English officers after India came under the Crown till World War Ii. They immersed themselves totally into the customs and language of their troops. Such was the rapport between the officers and their men that when Britain went into the war in Europe in 1914 one million soldiers "volunteered" to go and fight in the cold trenches where fighting was taking place.No coercion was reported. What is more they fought like lions winning the admiration of one and all friend or foe. There is no record in world history where troops ruled by another country gave their lives to save the rulers. Inexplicable Unbelievable camaraderie love and devotion. The Indian Army remains a legatee of those traditions of camaraderie commitments and devotion. Any outside attempt to tamper with these can only weaken one of the best fighting forces in the world.
The civil servants sent from Britain were also of the highest quality. It is worth reading the District Gazetteers left by them to understand the depth of their commitment and love for their districts. The degree of research was again phenomenal.
(The writer is not forgetting that while such dedicated work was going on within the country the rulers in UK allowed twelve million people in Bengal to starve to death while rations were diverted to feed troops elsewhere. Similarly no Indian of yesterday today and tomorrow can ever forget the Jallianwala Bagh massacre).
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The Tallest Indians of the Empire were educated in some of the great universities set up by the English.
Sri Aurobindo who escaped to Pondicherry wrote his magnus opus Savitri in English.
Swami Vivekanand bedazzled all those present at the first Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 by his address delivered in chaste English. Lionised in the US where he Delivered a series of talks and thence to Europe he went on to become the most venerated Indian of his age. Romain Rolland the distinguished French writer of the age wrote his famous biographies of Swami Vivekanand and his Guru. Paramhansa Ramkrishna. Some of the most famous persons in France accompanied him from Marseille to Suez to be with him longer. Neither him or some of the great Indians of the time never denounced the English rulers in India and abroad. Something the present legacy abolishers should ponder over. The most distinguished Indians who delivered the Constitution to their countrymen were all stalwarts of the British Raj.The Bengal Renaissance was a 19th-century intellectual awakening led by great figures like Raja Rammohan Roy (Father of the Renaissance, social reformer), Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (educator, widow remarriage advocate), Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (novelist, nationalist), Michael Madhusudan Dutt (poet), and Rabindranath Tagore (poet, Nobel laureate), alongside thinkers like Swami Vivekananda and scientists like Jagadish Chandra Bose, driving modern Bengali identity through literature, social reform, and new ideas blending Indian traditions with Western thought.
The urge to erase British legacy is short sighed. and wholely unnecessary. Of all the intellectual giants of the era who went on to make their mark in the world never railed against the British or their administration in India. Whence the urge now to bring them down.
English is today the lingua franca of the world. It is as much a language of the country as the others. Indian writers are considered some of the finest in the world having won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Indian diaspora has made good wherever they have to gone on account amongst other things because of their fluency in the English language. Some of the most renowned scientists of the period including Nobel Prize winners flourished under the Raj.
Post Independence India and its leaders need to venerate the Greats both Indian and English who gave their everything for Bharat in the preceding centuries. Their names should be emblazoned for posterity.
* Third Millennium Equipoise. Spantech and Lancer. 1998. KINDLE- Amazon.com
** Massive reduction in armaments consequent to coming into force of above agreements will make available the requisite funds.
Vinod Saighal
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