Book Review: Macaulay - Pioneer of India's Modernization
There he remains, buried near the west wall of the South Transept, among many of the other authors and poets whom he had so avidly read and admired.If you're an Indian reading this review in English, it's probably because of Thomas Macaulay. Thomas Macaulay is most famous for having introduced the English language as a medium for learning in India, creating a class of westernized Indians who are sometimes derisively referred to as 'Macaulay's children'. Was this as act of cultural imperialism or a modernizing move far before its time? Macaulay has always inspired both admiration and hostility in India. Ever since he served on the Supreme Council of India in the 1830s, his thinking and policies have had a profound, transformative impact on the subcontinent. Today, some activists even celebrate him as their liberator from caste tyranny.
Macaulay - Pioneer of India's Modernization is a biography of this influential figure, in which Zareer Masani traces Macaulay's journey from a child prodigy, historian and parliamentary orator in London to imperial administrator in India, and then revered elder statesman back in Britain, giving a vivid sense of a brilliant, eccentric, contradictory man and his complex times at the early days of Raj. Judging beyond Macaulay's Minutes, Zareer Masani presents the biography of the human Macaulay with his own faults and fallacies, who is much ahead of his time in framing policies and patronizing ideas that would have impacts in years to come.
Written in simple prose, this book is a thoroughly researched biography and may not suit you if you are keen to have a cursory glance of the life. On the other hand, if you are serious reader ready to devote attention, Zareer Masani's Macaulay will be definitely an elegant read.
Book Information
|  |
An impressive biography of an influential figure. I had received the review copy from Random House India. Thank you Rukun for giving me this opportunity. You can buy this book at amazon or at Flipkart in case you live in India. You can also find the lowest price of this book in India at shoppingwish.in
You may also like similar reviews available in the
archive
0 Thoughts:
Share a thought