why did james mil and thomas macaulay think that european education was essential in india?
Answers
They thought that education should be useful and practical. They felt that Indians should be made familiar with the advances being made by the West. They thought that the Indians were uncivilized and needed to be civilized. This could be done only through English education.
James Mill and Thomas Macaulay felt that knowledge of English would allow Indians to read some of the finest literature that the world had produced; it would make them aware of the developments in Western science and philosophy. The teaching of English could thus be a way of ‘civilising’ people, changing their tastes, values and culture. They also felt that the aim of education should be to teach what was useful and practical. So Indians should be made familiar with the scientific and technical advances that the West had made, rather than with the poetry and sacred literature of the ‘Orient’.