Gugan 1

Nitesh Gugan

Mago Bhishma

English – IB PSL 2

Due: 30/10/2019

~Research Paper on colonialism~

As our fellow experts know, colonization has caused massive changes in India

in general. Experts have discussed how Macaulay founded Macaulayism, where the British

education system is implemented in all of its colonies ("Macaulayism"). This affected India as a

whole as their system of education was completely revamped. This total revamp of the

education system in India caused great short term benefits but multiple flaws arose in the

long term. The short term benefits were that: English was introduced in India, more people

were educated and the like ("Macaulayism"). The long term flaws were that there are no

specialized classes for specific occupations and also causes the people who go through

education to be a “jack of all trades and a master of none” (Sawhney). Even though this topic

has been discussed extensively, there has been no firm reason as to why the flaws are so

important, and also nobody has looked through these flaws and what they cause in an

economical scope. Thus, my claim is that: The flaws in the current Indian education system is

a result of British colonization. This has been talked about but not through an economic

scope, thus meaning that it will also affect India's overall economy. Also that due to

colonization, India’s economy fell and due to that dip in economy, the majority of Indian
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citizens today (that are underprivileged) are unable to support the specialization of

occupation, thus causing a bigger dip in India’s economy.

Blueprint:

1. Flaws in the Indian education system and the link to colonization

2. How colonization caused India’s economy to fall

3. The relation between the Indian education system and India’s great dip in economy

The link between the flaws of the Indian education system and colonization is

mainly because of Macaulayism. This means that the British education system would be

applied to all of its colonies. This includes India, the main problem of Macaulayism is that

each country has different situations, these situations require different education systems to

help boost the economy of a country; thus, when the British education system was applied to

India, it was a big mistake. There should be a tailor-made education system for developing

countries (third world) so that the country can gain the status of a first-world country. Then

education systems like the IB and IGCSE and the others can be applied when a country is

developed. This makes sure to minimalize the possible flaws and also boost the country’s

economy by an exponential extent. But, due to colonization and Macaulayism lots of flaws

appeared in the long run. Thus, overall most of the flaws that you experts have been

discussing in the Indian education system originate due to colonization.

As we know the main reason for the fall of India’s prosperous economy is due

to Britain colonizing India. Due to the British rule during the time periods of 1700 to 1950 is

described by a British economist that goes by name of Angus Maddison “That India’s share
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of the world economy collapsed from 24.4% to 4.2%”. ("Economy Of India Under The British

Raj") This statistic is a clear representation as to why colonization caused India’s economy to

fall exponentially. Also, during this time period, India had a lower per capita income and

massively lower levels of urbanization; many people consider this time being the time where

India was “deindustrialized” by the people of Britain. A historian by the name of Rajat Kanta

Ray says “That the economy established by the British was a form of plunder and a

catastrophe for the economy of India, depleting food and money stocks and imposing high

taxes that was one of the causes of the great famine during 1770.” ("Economy Of India Under

The British Raj") The famine ended up killing one-third of the people living in Bengal during

that time. Also due to Britain having a monopoly of the opium business and spreading it

worldwide (for instance places like India and China) they grew massive amounts of opium in

India and using Indians. The profits went straight to Britain and totaled to around 900 million

pounds. Also, due to the addictive nature of opium, Indian citizens were exploited and also

improvised Indian pheasants. To give a statistic of how many Indians were used to cultivate

the opium, there were around 1.3 million pheasants that cultivated the poppy flower (opium

comes from poppy) in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Adding on to this, the citizens of India were

taxed heavily for every purchase, meal and also for the cost of living; all of these taxes went

mostly to Britain, again causing the downfall of India’s economy. Due to all of these factors,

India’s economy has fallen exponentially.

The relation between India’s great dip in the economy and the Indian education

system isn’t very obvious but holds a substantial impact on India’s welfare. Due to the

British’s education system being applied in a country with low economy, people who want to

continue their studies further do not have the opportunity to do so. The British education
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system focuses on making a jack of all trades first, then for whichever field the student is

interested in, he or she will specifically study that field in university. But due to India’s low

overall economy and huge population, most people do not have the funds to send their

children to university. This means that the student will not be good at anything but just hold

some superficial knowledge about it due to not being able to continue their studies further.

Also some parents send their children to university but sacrifice their wellbeing to secure the

funds, there have been many cases where parents die due to malnutrition as they pull back

and save money via skimping on meals to pay off their child’s university fee. Many cases

where parent’s deaths are caused due to securing funds to pay for their child’s university fee

actually ends up going for the funereal for them as the child will undergo enormous

emotional pain. This pain can cause the child to also go through lots of mental stress and also

use the money for some substances that can reduce stress (alcohol). Due to this, India’s

economy will fall even lower; making this a vicious cycle. We require a person in power to

do something about this so that the younger generation can prosper and build India back up.

Another reason why economy is linked to education is that if the family has the funds to send

the child to university, they will most probably go abroad or want to work abroad. Why is

this? You may ask, it is because India’s economy is low. Thus, again making India’s

economy lower. To change this, we need people who are able to use India’s funds

appropriately, one example of inappropriate fund spending is the recent statue built in India. I

think it is a big mistake as this money can be used for the betterment of India, once India’s

economy has reached stability and India is more developed the statue should have been built.

Thus, this shows the linkage between the fall of India’s economy and why the education

system is not suitable for India.

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In summary, this shows that the flaws in the Indian education system is caused

by colonization. Due to colonization, a new education system was put into place that made

students a jack of all trades, due to colonization India’s economy fell and lastly due to

colonization Indians could not afford to pay for university, meaning that they would not be

able to specialize into a particular field. Thus this caused flaws in the educations system to

arise. As education should be the backbone of a country, something that helps the country

develop, it should be prioritized and made sure that it will help the country grow as a whole.
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Works Cited Page:

"Economy Of India Under The British Raj". En.Wikipedia.Org, 2019,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_India_under_the_British_Raj#Econ
omic_impact_of_British_imperialism.
"Education In India: Importance, Growth And Future Prospects". Toppr-Guides,
2019, https://www.toppr.com/guides/economics/human-capital-formation-in-
india/education-in-india/.
"Macaulayism". En.Wikipedia.Org, 2019,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaulayism.
"Must Read- Pros And Cons Of Education System In India". Sure Job, 2019,
https://surejob.in/10-fundamental-problems-with-education-system-in-
india.html.
Sawhney, Roop. "How Flawed Is The Indian Education System?". Indianfolk,
2019, https://www.indianfolk.com/flawed-indian-education-system-edited-
anu-vensila/.
Thakur. "Top 10 Detectable Flaws In Indian Education System". Topyaps, 2019,
https://topyaps.com/top-10-detectable-flaws-in-indian-education-system/.