Macaulay's Minute of 1835 recommended making English the medium of instruction in Indian education. It argued that English was the language of the ruling class, key to modern knowledge, and would spark a renaissance in India. It also recommended replacing traditional Indian literature with European literature in educational institutions and converting regional schools to English-medium education. The report believed the upper classes would emulate this education and pass knowledge to lower classes.

1. Macaulay’s Minute of 1835

2. Background
Macaulay’s
Minute of 1835 As the Oriental- Occidental
Controversy darkened the whole
educational scenario of the time,
William Bentinck, the then Governor
General of the company assigned Mr.
Macaulay, the law member of the
Governor general’s council, the duty
of submitting a strategy for solving
the problem. As a result, Mr.
Macaulay submitted his report in
1835, which is known as ‘ Macaulay’s
Minutes’

3. Major
Recommendations
Macaulay’s
Minute of 1835
1
English should
be the medium
of instruction at
all the levels of
education
It is the Key to Modern
Knowledge
It is the Language of Ruling
Class
It would fetch renaissance in
India
Indians are eager to learn
English

4. Major
Recommendations
Macaulay’s
Minute of 1835
2
European
Literature should
be taught at
educational
institutions.
A single shelf of a good
European library worths
the whole native
literature of India and
Arabia

5. Major
Recommendations
Macaulay’s
Minute of 1835
3
All regional
institutions should
be converted into
English Education
Grants given to such
institutions can be
utilized for the
spreading of English
in India

6. Major
Recommendations
Macaulay’s
Minute of 1835
4
Downward
Filtration Theory
There is no need for
educating the mass, but by
educating the upper class, it
will be filtered down to the
lower class people, as it is
the human tendency that the
common folk always try to
imitate the people of higher
status

7. Merits Demerits
 Commencement of English
Education
 Introduction of European Literature
 Introduction of Modern system
 Commencement of Science
education
 Window to Democratic Ideas
 Awareness of Concepts like
Nationalism
 Added Extra Fuel to the Burning
Fire
 Neglected Regional Languages
 Neglected Indigenous Systems
 Neglected Eastern Literature
 Focused on Producing Clerks
 Severely Condemned the Native
Literature and Culture