Colonization Of Higher Education In "British India"

India has been a colony of Britain for a long period of time. The Britishers stepped their feet there initially to seek interests by trade and gradually they began to rule the subcontinent politically, economically and culturally. Education is no exception.This thesis analyzes the higher education in British India from the historical perspective with the main theory frame being Karl Marx's view of colonialism's "double mission in India: one destructive, the other regenerating" .In the history of higher education in British India, the two schools Orientalists and Anglists debated a great deal. The former encouraged to revive the Indian traditional literature and languages and wanted to make Indian languages as the medium of instruction. They believed the British should respect and adapt to the Indian culture and traditions while introducing Western sciences and education systems slowly. On the other side, the latter totally ignored the native culture and traditions and argued a thorough westernization of higher education in India. In their opinion, the English language should be the sole instruction medium and western curriculums should be the only courses for the Indians. The representative ideology of the Anglicists was the "Downward Filtration Theory" by Thomas Babington Macaulay. It held that the British Indian Government should provide only education to the Indian upper class and through them "filtrate" to the mass people. This was a theory with obvious colonial color. It focused on the education of an upper class serving the British interests, while the mass people were completely ignored. The so-called "downward filtration" was merely an excuse to cover up the British unwillingness to develop education for the mass people and its motives to focus on higher education while ignoring the basic education.With the victory of the Anglicists and the acceptance of the "Downward Filtration Theory", the westernized higher education system was established in India which promoted the development in Indian social, scientific and other aspects. And English as an instruction medium has also played its role in helping India adapt to the globalization trend in modern times. That's what the regenerating mission called by Karl Marx. However, this colonial education also had its destructive mission. The "Downward Filtration Theory" greatlynarrowed its scope to the upper class and completely ignored the basic education. At the same time, the vernacular culture and languages were put to a marginal position with the westernization of education. So it's not surprising that the Indian people eventually launched a national education movement and began to develop their own national education.