E-raamat: Macaulay and English in India

This book traces how the English language emerged from the nineteenth century not only as an imperial and bureaucratic language but also as a global one. It highlights the role of Thomas Babington Macaulay and his "e;Minutes"e; in this journey and his lasting impact on the English language and English studies. This work recovers the contexts of those interventions and assesses their far-reaching effects in India, Great Britain, and the United States. It explores a variety of themes including the early modern quest for a universal language; the European quarrel between the Ancients and the Moderns; the young Macaulay's precocious preference for the Moderns (despite his continuing infatuation with the Ancients); and Macaulay's more mature advocacy of a modern (English) rather than a classical literary curriculum. Further, it registers the ambivalent force of English, a "e;second language,"e; on the development of Indian identity and culture; and it documents Macaulay's role in shaping the contested concept of "e;meritocracy,"e; in England, the United States, and India.The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of modern Indian history, English studies, colonialism and imperialism, and South Asian studies.