How can I get a link or access to a speech by Lord McCauley in the
British Parliament, February 1835, commonly referred as the Minutes.

Hello doctrepreneur,

Here are two versions of the "Minute" on education in India by Lord
Macauley (Thomas Babington Macauley), dated 2nd Feburary 1835.  The
first text appears more authoritative, but you can check it against
the second one just in case.

"Macaulay's Minute on Education, February 2, 1835"
Project South Asia [Missouri Southern State University]
http://www.mssc.edu/projectsouthasia/history/primarydocs/education/Macaulay001.htm

"Lord Macauley: The Man Who Started It All, and His Minute", by M. S.
Thirumalai, Ph. D. (4 April 2003) [starting in section 19, near the
middle of the page]
Language in India
http://www.languageinindia.com/april2003/macaulay.html

- justaskscott


Search terms used, in various combinations, on Google:

"lord mccauley"
"lord macauley"
minutes
minute
1835

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Request for Answer Clarification by doctrepreneur-ga on 15 Jan 2004 15:04 PST

Someone attributed the following statement to Lord McCauley in his
speech of Feb 2,1835 (The Minutes):
"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 self-culture and
they will become what we want them, a truly dominated nation?.

I did not see anything like this in the text.  I am assuming that like
so much other falsehoods this attribution to Lord Macauley is not
true. Is it somewhere else? Comments?

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Clarification of Answer by justaskscott-ga on 15 Jan 2004 15:49 PST

In many instances where these statements are attributed to Macauley,
the "quotation" is preceded by: "His words were to this effect".  The
source is often cited as "The Awakening Ray, Vol. 4 No. 5, The Gnostic
Centre ... Reproduced in Niti issue of April, 2002 at p. 10 - a
periodic publication of Bharat Vikas Parishad, Delhi."  So it seems
that this "quotation" is really a paraphrase (or a
reading-between-the-lines) from "The Awakening Ray", which has been
repeated on various pages, sometimes without correct attribution.

'Searched the web for "i have traveled across the length"'
Google
://www.google.com/search?q=%22i+have+traveled+across+the+length%22&num=30&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&filter=0

'Searched the web for "i have travelled across the length"'
Google
://www.google.com/search?q=%22i+have+travelled+across+the+length%22&num=30&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&safe=off&filter=0

If I had a dime (or 10p, or rupee) for every misquotation or
miscitation on the Web, I'd literally be a millionaire.  It's good
that you checked this quotation out, before perpetuating the
attribution to Macauley.

I should have asked the question more sharply rather than ask it again
in the comments.

It is a general misconception that this is a part of Lord McCauley's
speech to British Parliament because Lord McCauley arrived in India on
10th June 1834 and returned to England in early 1838. If in 1835 he
was in India then how could he have delivered a speech in the British
Parliament. Let me also add that he arrived in India by a 3 month long
journey by ship so there is no chance that the Lord made a quick visit
to England (British Airways did not exist at that time) for delivering
this speech.