Lord Macaulay did not deliver this speech in the British Parliament in 1835 - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 25, 2021
A social media post claiming that in his British Parliamentary address dated 02 February 1835 which glorifies India, Lord Macaulay advocated for the breakup of the spiritual and cultural heritage of India by replacing its old and ancient education system in order to conquer India. Back in 2014, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan through a tweet also shared the same image which he said was Macaulay’s British Parliament address in 1835. Through this article let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Lord Macaulay’s 1835 British Parliamentary address glorifying India and advocating a plan to conquer India.
Fact: Lord Macaulay’s ‘Minute on Education’ address dated 02 February 1835 establishes the fact that he did not address British Parliament on that date. There are no British parliamentary records of the purported speech available on Hansards. Even in ‘Minute on Education’, Macaulay has rooted for Western education. There are multiple news articles available which state that Macaulay had not made such comments glorifying India. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
A simple Google search with relevant keywords led us to TB Macaulay’s ‘Minute on Education’ address dated 02 February 1835 shared by Columbia University which ascertains the fact that Macaulay had not addressed the British Parliament on that day as claimed in the post.
Further in this minute, Macaulay has not made any statement lauding India’s ancient education system as claimed in the post. In fact, in this minute promoting western education Macaulay has stated that ‘shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia’.
Lord Macaulay’s remarks on India in British Parliament in 1933 can be read in the book Speeches by Lord Macaulay: With His Minute on Indian Education Code. His comments in the speech appear to contradict the comments in the post.
Also, multiple keyword searches on Hansard archives, which documents British parliamentary records from the early 19th century did not yield us any records of the purported speech.
News articles by The Hindu have ascertained that Lord Macaulay did not make any such comments as claimed in the post. Earlier, posts with a similar speech with the word ‘India’ replaced with ‘Africa’ were widely circulated which can be seen here. All these establish that Lord Macaulay did not deliver any speech glorifying India and advocating a plan to conquer India in British Parliament on 02 February 1835.
What Lord Macaulay said about Africa and Africans to British parliament in 1835. pic.twitter.com/jgGKIOqKEU
To sum it up, Lord Macaulay did not deliver a speech glorifying India in British Parliament in 1835.