Dalit activist Chandrabhan Prasad just celebrated the 206th birthday of Lord Macaulay, with a party in New Delhi [via Shashwati]. Why celebrate the face of English imperialism? Because for some groups domination by a foreign overlord was better than domestic oppression. 
…. Prasad … hails Macaulay as the Father of Indian Modernity, for it was after the introduction of his English system of education in 1854, that Dalits got the right to education, he says. [Link]Bhan has three reasons for revering Macaulay – his insistence to teach the “natives” English broke the stranglehold of Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic teaching, a privilege of only the elite castes and, he argued,for the European kind of modern education, with focus on modern sciences. “Imagine, if we had only followed indigenous study,” said Bhan, “we would be like Afghanistan or Nepal today.”… [Link]
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p>These activists go further than celebrating Macaulay’s role in the past, however, and call for English to be central to Dalit education in the future. They unveilled a portrait of “English, the Dalit Goddess”:
Dalit poet Parak sang a couplet to the portrait – a refashioned Statue of Liberty, wearing a hippie hat, holding a massive pink pen, standing on a computer, with a blazing map of India in the background – Oh, Devi Ma/ Please Let us Learn English/ Even the dogs understand English, to cheers and laughter, …Bhan … declared … “Hereafter, the first sounds all newborn Dalit and Adivasi babies will hear from their parents is – abcd. Immediately after birth, parents or a nearest relative will walk up to the child and whisper in the ear – abcd,’… [Link]
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p>Is English a tool of liberation? Are indigenous Indian languages oppressive?
The remedy … is to … become English speaking at the earliest. Goddess English is all about emancipation. Goddess English is a mass movement against the Caste Order, against linguistic evils such as Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Telgu and Bangla for instance. Indian languages as more about prejudices, discrimination and hatred and less about expressions and communications. [Link]
Or is this just a PR stunt, to stick a finger in the eye of the local intelligencia? Is the best path for Dalit advancement to reject Indian languages in favor of English? Lastly, should they learn International English or Desi Hinglish?
I think the better path to Dalit advancement is to sneer at the piety of us non-Dalit people at all times. I for one would rather take my medicine is a humorous way where they laugh at us for our preening arrogance. Dalits have a right to be pissed any way they want.
Ashish Nandy says it better in the article you linked Ennis,
“I certainly do not agree with some of BhanÂ’s thesis,Â’Â’ said an aghast Nandy, “but….itÂ’s the sheer audacity of it that makes it so forceful.Â’Â’
I know such English that I will leave the British behind. You see sir, I can talk English, I can walk English, I can laugh English, I can run English, because English is such a funny language. Bhairo becomes Byron because their minds are very narrow. In the year 1929 when India was playing Australia at the Melbourne stadium Vijay Hazare and Vijay Merchant were at the crease. Vijay Merchant told Vijay Hazare. look Vijay Hazare Sir , this is a very prestigious match and we must consider it very prestigiously. We must take this into consideration, the consideration that this is an important match and ultimately this consideration must end in a run. In the year 1979 when Pakistan was playing against India at the Wankhede stadium Wasim Raja and Wasim Bari were at the crease and they took the same consideration. Wasim Raja told Wasim Bari, look Wasim Bari, we must consider this consideration and considering that this is an important match we must put this consideration into action and ultimately score a run. And both of them considered the consideration and ran and both of them got out.
As many know here, in the nationalist argot, ‘Macaulayite’ is a slur, signifying someone who is anglicized beyond recognition. But truly, no one, not even the Communists, likes Maucalay in India.
Macaulay famously said that a shelf of a good European library was worth more than the entire corpus of Sanskrit and Persian.
So his strategy is in part a snub.
Prasad’s project is to create a Dalit middle class and a Dalit leisure class (the type of Indian who can travel abroad, afford to send his kids abroad) etc., and he has tired of the unexamined leftism of other Dalit intellectuals. He is agog at the fact that there is a solid African American middle class, and he sees this group as a role model. He is also in favor of private sector reservations.
With due respect to the native language enthusiasts, he is sadly right. The way up (and lets be honest) out in the private sector is English. While Dalit IIM graduates do occasionally land jobs at Goldman Sachs, they are held back mainly because of their lack of English proficiency, not because of their caste.
This may be bad for India in the long run as several have pointed out in the past here, but as a Dalit activist, he sees it as his business to propose ways to improve his community. Blame globalization, if you will: a call center worker makes more than an entry level chartered accountant these days.
I’ve actually had this argument with friends of mine before…the vast majority of India’s people were better off with the Brits running things than the locals, until India produced a sufficiently Western/liberal leadership.
Kinda like the quote from Life of Brian: “All right, but apart from the sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system and public health, what have the
RomansBritish ever done for us?”Not that the British deserve any credit for it- the whole point of the British Empire was to make money. Any claim about the “civilizing mission” or the “white man’s burden” was strictly hypocritical rationalizing bullshit. India might have advanced, but the whole point was to let India advance just far enough to make the Empire more profitable.
That doesn’t change that the fact that people at the bottom were marginally better off under British imperialist capitalism than Indian feudalism. It also doesn’t change the fact that India has the best of both worlds now…a Western political system run by Indians for their own benefit.
Celeritas Subpontus
Looks like these dalit intellectuals are having a good laugh: at the servile english-obsession of their hindu upper-caste oppressors; at their pathetic hypocrisy in reviling Macaulay (and christian missionaries) on the one hand while desperately trying to get their children into english-medium convent schools, on the other; at their propensity to make gods and goddesses out of any and everything. While making the valid point that english may be their ticket out of the dehumanizing hindu caste trap, in a country where non-english speakers are second class citizens in their own native land. Smart move, if they follow through.
BTW, India would be a gold mine for Borat. 🙂
Ennis –
“Is the best past for Dalit advancement to reject Indian languages in favor of English? Lastly, should they learn International English or Desi Hinglish?”
With due respect, who the F825 are you to ask and, we to tell them (Dalits) what language to use.
As Sahej said – “Dalits have a right to be pissed any way they want.” And, to learn in any language they fancy.
Kritic bhai,
My antipathy was not for Ennis, as I think he is probably more learned than me on Dalit issues. Don’t mistake my tone as annoyance with him, as after all, he is the one who put this post up to highlight the problems going on.
Show some gratitude fella. Or do you really think the British finally ending the centuries old hindu customs of widow-burning, human sacrifice, crushing suicide under the Juggernaut etc were strictly hypocritical rationalizing bullshit??
See he didn’t mention Urdu or Hindi which are not elite. Sanskrit is so irrelevant for the few hundreds of years and persian and arabic are so rare.
You are so right. It is not just the local intelligencia but the whole gamut of upper caste/nationalist junta.
There is no doubt that English will better the lot of lower rungs of strata not just dalits or adivasis just because the dollars are flowing into India and the high % of them will to those that learn English
ROTFLMAO at the thought of Nandy staring aghast at this declaration of faith in English as a tool of liberation!! (those who know Nandy will see the humour – he’s Mr. Subalternist to a fault, and worships “authentic” tolerant Hindu culture as the soul of the nation even though he was brought up Christian…)
Sahej –
My grouse is not with the post itself, only with the last para.
If you don’t like what I write, and what I ask, then please don’t read it. These activists are making a public claim, and I’m engaging with them. I have no idea why you think my question involves some sort of paternalistic dictation, but I have noticed that whenever I write a post, you seem to think that you can read my mind and ascertain my true intent. You are incorrect, sir.
English speaking graduate = Better job opportunities. Economics trumps everything else.
I have come across many bais who proudly say that they clean 12 houses every day to make sure that their kids can attend English medium schools. For them, ensuring secure future for the kids is #1 concern. Middle fingering established class is a happy side effect.
I have come across many bais who proudly say that they clean 12 houses every day to make sure that their kids can attend English medium schools.
That is very true. Every poor Indian knows the economic power of English language, and the opportunities it presents.
“If you don’t like what I write, and what I ask, then please don’t read it.”
Or, If you don’t want your post to be read, don’t write it.
Also, I never calimed to divine your intention. I did, however, imply that your query reeks of hubris.
celeritas wrote: I’ve actually had this argument with friends of mine before…the vast majority of India’s people were better off with the Brits running things than the locals, until India produced a sufficiently Western/liberal leadership.
Actually, liberalism is not a British invention and neither was it new to India. Much before the British believed in such things, do note than an Indian ruler, and a Muslim to boot, was a founder-member of the Jacobin club in Paris.
I find it utterly tiring to keep proving with examples of poetry, literature and history that Indians were not the-backward-“vernacular-medium”-casteist-aborgines-before-the-British-came-into-India.
Just as India had adopted/created technology in other spheres, India would’ve have, left to its own devices, adopted railways, and the benefits of industrialization.
If anything, Macaulay’s efforts have created a class which loathes its Indianess so thoroughly, that one finds it hard to swim against that tide and explain otherwise.
I am deeply saddened to see the increasing influence of Evangelical Christians in their terrorist activities of breaking apart India. Even though, these events may seem novel when they stand alone, however one has to read between the lines and look behind the mirage to see that most of the Dalits activities are being funded by Christian Missionaries in US. And these Christian Missionaries do not have a desire to help India or Indians in any meaningful way, besides increasing their own head count. Yes, they have done some wonderful work in India, but there sole and ultimate motive is to increase their head count at any cost. Do you find it acceptable that such moves should be encouraged even at the cost of Indian Culture? Just visit here to read the whole paradigm such activities http://www.christianaggression.org
You might want to look at this too – http://www.kafila.org/2006/11/09/the-dalit-betrayal-of-hindi-hindu-hindustan/
Evaluating factual statements made by public figures involves “overconfident pride and arrogance”? That’s a very odd inference to draw, and yes one that requires knowledge of my mental state to make.
Even if you were right in general, that final sentence is clearly tongue in cheek – click on the link and see where it takes you. Definitionally, I think it’s hard for jocular utterance to be understood as hubris, unless the act of joking and poking fun itself reveals arrogance or overweaning pride.
To quote ancient wisdom:
So please, open a dictionary and put away your crystal ball. You really can’t read my mind, I wear a tin foil hat so that the mind reading rays can’t get into my gray matter.
Hmmm lets see: English language, America, Computers, India Shining…….isnt this the true goddess of the hindu “upper caste” masses yearning to break free from the shackles of poverty? 🙂
Even though, these events may seem novel when they stand alone, however one has to read between the lines and look behind the mirage to see that most of the Dalits activities are being funded by Christian Missionaries in US.
Prasad is not in the missionaries’ pocket. He writes for the Organizer, a nationalist-sympathetic publication.
I meant the Pioneer.
circus wrote See he didn’t mention Urdu or Hindi which are not elite. Sanskrit is so irrelevant for the few hundreds of years and persian and arabic are so rare.
True, but only somewhat. The official court documents of various kingdoms in India were in different languages. Quite a large number of northern kingdoms used Farsi in court. In the South, it was a combination of Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu. [Marathi was for a long time the official language of kings in Karnataka as well.]
I do agree that Sanskrit was almost never used in court or during business transactions. Also, the ability to learn any of the courtroom languages was hindered by economics and not caste. A poor Muslim would’ve as much of a tough time learning Farsi as a poor “low-caste” Hindu would. That said, feudalism had its own patronage system that allowed the affluent to sponsor education to those that they found promising. Ambedkar himself is a good example of a child who was benefited by patronage.
The richest folks in India during the 1600-1800s were not always kings. Merchants were very wealthy as well. Trade, in Calcutta was, for instance conducted by “lower-caste” merchant bankers(Jagat Seth, Omichand etc), who spoke in Marwari.
Quizman,
Wasn’t there a king in India till 1947, whose court language was French, and mimicked everything French. They were some strange cookies – the rajas and ranis of India.
So you are a Tipu Sultan fan.
In 1947, Nawab of Hyderabad was one of the richest man in the world
Also,some kings/ nawabs were paupers with their writ not even extedning their tiny homes in Lucknow (or place like that)
Are you saying that Marathi, Tamil etc.. are elite languages, I hope not. So I don’t get what you are saying… It is nothing to do with the language per se but literacy. Agreed at some point of the history, elite languages were denied for some castes and wrote their own death sentences.
Kush,
You are probably referring to the Nawab of Arcot, whose great-grandson is this guy.
Not a fan, but I get irked by statements that seem to convey that the Brits civilized us. On the contrary. They set us back by 200 years (See India’s GDP estimated figureds before and after their arrival). Look at the damage the Brits did to Iran, Iraq and other countries. The fundamental question to ask is: why is India so different from all the other non-white countries ruled by Britain? Why didn’t we regress to feudalism after they left, as other countries did? Answer: Because we had a tradition of liberalism for a long time. The Brits didn’t civilize us. Even the Sati/widow-remarriage laws were repudiated at the insistence of Indians. As we saw with Pundita Ramabai. Indian women pressurized the Brits in 1886 to open schools for women.
circus: No, you contended that Persian etc were marginal. They were not. Farsi (Persian) was the official language of the court in many kingdoms. I qualified that statement by stating that there were other kingdoms where esoteric languages did not hold sway.
Perhaps, ennis can confirm, but iirc, even Ranjit Singh’s court in the early 1800s did its business in Farsi.
Quizman,
Do you have a link for the GDP estimates?
Getting back to Ennis queston, though: the answer is yes, I don’t think the dalits, or anyone else has a choice other than learn English and Chinese. That’s where the economic opportunities are.
Quizman –
“Also, the ability to learn any of the courtroom languages was hindered by economics and not caste.”
If true, why isn’t the above statement reflected in the “lower caste” discourse?
All my life, I have learnt, how the upper castes never allowed the lower caste, irrespective of economic standing, to be schooled in sanskrit or farsi or schooled at all.
Do you have a link for the GDP estimates? Sahej,
Amongst many, Paul Kennedy (The rise and fall of great powers) has shown the GDP decline in India with the British’s arrival.
Follow Paul on google.
Sahej –
Besides Paul Kennedy, another good resource is u penn’s Francine Frankel.
Sahej,
I don’t quite recall where, but I think it was linked in a similar discussion on Ravikiran’s blog. IIrc, it was a book published by CSS India.
Thanks all
It’s true, as others have pointed out, that English has created a socio-economic and cultural divide in India. But this applies to everyone not just the dalits.
I do not buy the claim that the English provided the Dalits with their rights to education. There is a rich body of literature authored by Dalits on a continuous basis since antiquity. The most famous examples of this are the Valmiki Ramayana and Vyas’s Mahabharata. If dalits were continually being opressed and denied education how did these people manage to compose literary works of such scale? I think a better strategy might be for the dalits to take pride and ownership of their heritage instead of denigrating it all the time. The so-called upper castes value these and other works composed by dalits. It’s ironic that dalits continually rail against Sanskrit.
World GDP share of major economies. [link]
Did this liberalism extend to the Dalits? If not, Bhan is still right—it is Macaulay who bettered the Dalits’ lot.
kritic: Simple. The introduction of English language schools in India did not increase literacy amongst the lower castes either. The English language schools – then as now – are primarilyy the domain of the middle-class and upper class – regardless of caste. The same was the case with Indian language institutions before English, though clearly there was a lot of restriction on enrollment which was caste-based. Do note that the people who controlled the economy, even before the British, were not the traditional higher castes in India. Then as now, the literate class were mostly bureaucrats, translators, negotiators and so on. They were simply decently paid civil servants. Sort of tangential, but an article in Outlook (probably 2005) referred to the harm that madarrasas do to the Muslim community in India by teaching them stuff like Farsi, Arabic, calligraphy etc. Do rich Muslims go to madarassas? Heck, no! Rich Muslims go to English medium schools. Richer ones go to 5-star ones like these. 🙂
Prasad’s pronouncements have less to do with history and more to do with media stunts. Politicians in India are learning the western art of sound bites. Say something controversial and you are guaranteed your fifteen minutes of fame. That’s how Lalu Prasad Yadav – I assume everybody knows who he is – became a national figure despite having ruined an entire state of 80 million people.
The message of globalization, unfortunately, is quite clear: Learn English, become urbanized, move out of the lower middle class. Stick with your native language, and no matter how intelligent, you will still be the village baniya picking at your toenails while selling mounds of aam and papitha.
That is not completely true, of course. There is a small Dalit middle class in all of the metros and the districts made up of government employees. But Bhan sees the writing on the wall: there is limited growth in the bureacracy; there is limited growth in embracing tradition. Truly, its the wealthy ones who get nostalgic about tradition.
Sure, it took money to access English medium schools. I don’t think that was the question, however. In the past, could dalits go to school of any sort, or did their access to education begin with English medium? Prasad says:
Do you agree or disagree that before this point, it was impossible for Dalits to become literate?
Ennis,
I do not mean to pry, but you don’t by any chance happen to have six fingers on your right hand?
“Do note that the people who controlled the economy, even before the British, were not the traditional higher castes in India.”
But of course. For example, “the poor Brahmin.”
Do you agree or disagree that before this point, it was impossible for Dalits to become literate?
I doubt thats true. There is a Gandhian scholar named Dharmapal who collected data about village schools in the Madras Presidency which demonstrated that at least some of the lower castes had access to education.
No Von Mises:
Do you always begin conversations this way? Yes, I am Hrithik Roshan.
Divya,
Given the despicable way our ancestors have treated and,(shamefuly in some parts) our peers are treating, the Dalits, it is unfair to expect reciprocity, for a Valmiki here or a Vyas there.
The onus is upon us, the so called upper castes, to beg for forgiveness. And criticising their linguistic preferences is the wrong way to seek redemption (not of the religious, mumbo jumbo kind), in my opinion.
Instead of learning English I think the Dalits should start changing their last names to English surnames, which would save them from alot of prejudice! A quicker way to assimilate them in society on equal footing, is to make a couple of them Bollywood super stars (it aint hard and you dont need english!), then it would be trendy then to have them work for you or be associated with them. Success!
Thanks, Quizman