Macaulay, Elphinstone and Indian Education

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DescriptionEven after 75 years of independence, it is widely believed that our education system is groaning under the weight of the ideas of Macaulay, Wood, Bentinck and Elphinstone. We must ask ourselves, after all, what did these people do to blunt education, construction of knowledge and all other intellectual activities in India? Was Macaulay a villain or a superhero or a mere colonial bureaucrat? Or is he someone who gained undeserved prominence and notoriety in Indian history? It is indeed difficult to agree on one perspective to study Macaulay. In case you have not realized this till date; you will do so after you read this book. This book would help you recognize the nuances, and the one-sidedness of the curses that are inflicted upon Macaulay. The articles in this book bring out the multi-faceted nature of the issue and force us to ask the question how correct is it to lay the blame of whatever is wrong in education on Macaulay, absolve the current system of all responsibility and leave it with no agency. Why can we not get rid of what we think Macaulay left us with and is undesirable? Is Macaulay merely an excuse and the reality is that we do not want to include everyone into the fold to account for the absence of quality education today? Hriday Kant Dewan has spent his life making school education (particularly science, mathematics and languages) child-friendly, concept-focused and research and reflection based. Trained as a particle physicist, he was a founding member of Eklavya Foundation (Madhya Pradesh) and has worked with Vidya Bhawan Society (Rajasthan) and Azim Premji University (Bangalore). He has been working in the space of Teacher Development and Elementary Education for over 40 years and continues to devote his energies for systemic improvement in education, particularly in the public education system. He has contributed to the development of curriculum, materials and programmes for teacher pre-service and in-service capacity building for many states and has also been engaged in research in school education and teacher education.Rama Kant Agnihotri, DPhil (York) retired as Professor and Head, Department of Linguistics at the University of Delhi, Delhi. He is interested in and has taught and written extensively about Applied Linguistics, Morphology, Sociolinguistics and Research Methods for several years. He is also interested in the interface between language and school education. He has been working with several NGOs working in education including Eklavya, Vidya Bhawan and Digantar. He has published books from Routledge, Oxford University Press, Sage, Multilingual Matters, Orient Blackswan, Ratna Sagar among others. He was the Chairperson of the NCERT’s, National Focus Group on the Teaching of Indian langauages.

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