PRIME Minister Mr. Narendra Modi has given the nation another time-bound but highly essential goal -- of ridding ourselves of ‘Macaulay mindset’ -- in the next ten years. Those who have studied Indian society’s contemporary socio-cultural condition in the perspective of the history of the British Raj will understand the importance of this goal -- whose core purpose will be to establish the primacy of Indian thought, Indian way of life, and India-centric vision for the future (beyond the grip of Lord Macaulay’s value-system that sought to enslave the Indian mind permanently). Mr. Narendra Modi insisted that the present-day Indian society must throw off the yoke of the Macaulian thought aimed at creating Indian people with British mindset.

 

Having witnessed the progress India has made in upholding Indic ideals in the past some time, we certainly agree with the Prime Minister that getting rid of the Macaulay mindset in ten years is an achievable goal -- provided the larger Indian society rose above political dividing lines. There is little doubt that the goal the Prime Minister has set is complex in nature -- in the sense not easy to be defined precisely. For, the Macaulian mindset has actually seeped deep into the Indian psyche for a few generations -- so much so that good numbers of Indian people still find themselves influenced by the western method, mode and manner of doing things.

 

This influence is so profound that good numbers of Indian people set their personal and social goals, too, as per western thought-process. Another area dominated by the Macaulay mindset is the perception of average Indian people about the nation’s history -- by way of which they wonder if India was truly a global superpower just a few hundred years ago. It is against these unfortunate realities that throwing off of the Macaulian mindset may become a complex socio-cultural goal for the present-day Indian society. We must admit that the Narendra Modi-Government has already taken credible steps in this direction, one of those being appropriate changes in the education system at all levels. Countless thousands of Indic scholars and researchers have been at work for decades on end to establish the primacy of Indic knowledge tradition and all that collective tapasya has given India a good knowledge base of how the country used to be a global superpower in the past and how today’s society should uphold those ideals.

 

This should be good enough a fresh starting point in pursuance of the Prime Minister’s call to start dismantling the Macaulian influence on the Indian psyche. It is essential to understand the complexity of the challenge as well. For, good numbers of Indian people are still under western influence and are happy to follow the pizza-burger-french-fries-cola lifestyle. Good numbers of Indian people also find great satisfaction in sending their children to colleges and universities abroad even for under-graduate levels (when credible education in available within the country as well). Good numbers of Indian youngsters find themselves unable to read and write in their own mother-tongues -- and find that activity rather below their ‘standard’. These are the visible signs of mental slavery in which good numbers of Indians find pleasure to pursue. These are the pointers to the Macaulian influence on the average Indian mind.

 

As he delivered the 6th Ramnath Goenka Memorial Lecture, the Prime Minister appeared fully aware of these subtle yet critical pointers and sought to erase those by putting before the people a laudable national goal. It is time the average Indian people gave a serious and deep thought to the Prime Minister’s call and started acting on it definitively with an innate sense of pride for things and thoughts Indian. For, what Mr. Narendra Modi has sought to achieve is the restoration of an actionable national pride in the heads and hearts of average Indian people -- a goal that we all must work hard to achieve.