Educating to Confuse and Disrupt

The purpose of the new education system introduced by Macaulay was to create “a class of persons, Indian in Blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect. “The ultimate goal of such an education system was best expressed by Max Mueller in his letter to the Duke of Argyll written on 16th December 1868. Max Mueller wrote, “India has been conquered once, but India must be conquered again, and the second conquest should be a conquest by education.” After India achieved political freedom it was expected that it will be free from the yoke of this ‘second conquest’ also and the dreams of Swami Vivekananda, Sri Aurobindo, Rabindranath Tagore and Gandhiji, about an Education system embedded in Indian ethos and tradition would be realized. Alas! That did not happen. If anything, the ‘second conquest’ has not only gotten much-more fortified in free India but also the Indian education system is producing the “class of persons… in morals and intellect”, manifolds more that has been thrust upon the nation for the last 55 years, all in the name of educational reforms.