Daily Archives: June 1, 2007

میکالے کا ایک اور فیصلہ

لارڈ میکالے کی تجویز نقل کی تھی جس پر چند قارئین نے اعتراض کیا تھا ۔ بزرگ کہتے تھے “اللہ مہربان سو کُل مہربان”۔ میرا سب سے بڑا لالچ سچائی کا حصول رہا ہے اور جب کبھی مجھے مشکل پیش آئی اللہ سبحانُہُ و تعالٰی نے میری مدد فرمائی ۔ اسی سلسلے میں 23 مئی کو ایک خط ڈان اخبار میں شائع ہوا جو اگرچہ مختلف تحریر ہے مگر میرے مؤقف کی تائید کرتی ہے ۔ متعلقہ اقتباس ۔ ۔ ۔ Macaulay’s children

The term Macaulay’s children is used to refer to people born of Indian ancestry who adopt western culture as a lifestyle, or display attitudes influenced by colonisers. Connotation of the term shows the specific behaviour of disloyalty to one’s country and one’s heritage. The passage to which the caption refers is taken from a minute Lord Macaulay wrote on Indian education. It reads:

“It is impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body of the people. We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern; a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the population.”

Should we mug up our state of affairs right from the independence, we find we have been governed till date by the class of people trained in accordance with the desired standards set out by the Macaulay theory.

Would the system that derives strength from the Macaulay doctrine bring any change in our lives? Civil society must strive hard and support those who are eligible to lead the masses. It appears that future is not so gloomy and we can see light at the end of the tunnel in the present struggle spearheaded by the chief justice. But we need hundreds of people like him who could guide the people to shun self-interest and be brave.