Lord Macaulay’s Address

The following historical statement shines a bright light on one of the factors that shaped our spiritual heritage. Here is Lord Macaulay’s address to the British Parliament in 2 February, 1835:
“I have traveled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief, such wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, that I do not think we would ever conquer this country, unless we break the very backbone of this nation, which is her spiritual and cultural heritage, and, therefore, I propose that we replace her old and ancient education system, her culture, for if the Indians think that all that is foreign and English is good and greater than their own, they will lose their self esteem, their native culture and they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation.”

Unfortunately, what Lord Macaulay and the British broke was not just India’s spiritual heritage but verily humanity’s spiritual heritage.

Another “unfortunately”: What the British did not break by infusing a cultural inferiority complex upon India’s population, the US destroyed by exporting materialism into the Indian psyche and lifestyle.

Now she is indeed broken – not just India but humanity.

This is not an east-west war. This is humanity’s collective battle: To ward off the ill-effects of cultural imperialism and materialism and embrace those values of universal humanness, moral courage and spiritual insight that allow us the cultivation and growth of a great humanity.