PM Modi calls for ending ‘colonial mindset’, sets 10-year deadline

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday (17 Nov) called for India to shed "post-colonial mindset", that was imposed on India, setting a 10-year timeline leading up to the 200th year of Macaulary's campaign to instill a salavry mindset on the country. The PM was referring to the 1985 introduction of the Macaulay education system. Delivering the sixth Ramnath Goenka Lecture in Delhi, Modi accused Congress of promoting ideas of Thomas Babington Macaulay and keeping the "colonial mindset" alive in India.

"In 1835, British Parliamentarian Thomas Babington Macaulay launched a major campaign to uproot India from its own roots. He declared that he would create Indians who would appear Indian but think like the British," he said.

Also Read: PM Modi switches to English again to warn Red Fort car blast conspirators, like he did after Pahalgam attack. Then Op Sindoor followed...

“In India’s traditional education system, we were taught to take pride in our culture. Our education emphasised skill along with learning. That is why Macaulay decided to break the backbone of India’s education system, and he succeeded. Macaulay ensured that British language and British thinking received greater recognition during that period, and India paid the price for it for centuries to come,” he added.

The prime minister noted that Macaulay's education policies filled Indians with inferiority and instilled a belief that we must adopt foreign ways to achieve anything.

“Macaulay broke our self-confidence and filled us with a sense of inferiority. He threw our entire way of life into the dustbin in one stroke. That was when the belief took root that Indians must adopt foreign ways to achieve anything. This mindset only strengthened after Independence. The sense of pride in what is ours gradually weakened,” he said.

Also Read: PM Modi hails Bihar landslide, sets eyes on uprooting ‘jungle raj’ in Bengal next

He further highlighted that the mindset of looking towards the West for governance models and innovation led us to forget Mahatama Gandhi's 'Swadeshi philosophy', which he laid during the independence struggle.

“The swadeshi philosophy, which Mahatma Gandhi made the foundation of the freedom movement, stopped receiving attention. We began to look abroad for governance models and innovation. This mindset led to a tendency where imported ideas, imported goods and imported services were all considered superior.”

Proposing a ten-year time frame to free the country from colonial mindset, he said, "I want to appeal to the entire country: over the next decade, we must resolve to free ourselves from the mindset of slavery that Macaulay imposed on India. The coming 10 years are extremely important."