Regarding the controversy between Anglicists and Orientalists, The famous Lord Macaulay’s Minute settled the row in favour of Anglicists i.e. the limited government resources were to be devoted to teaching of Western sciences and literature through the medium of English language alone.
Lord Macaulay held the view that “Indian learning was inferior to European learning”
The Downward Infiltration Theory
The government after the Macaulay minute made English as the medium of instruction in its schools and colleges.
They purposely opened a few English schools and colleges instead of a large number of elementary schools, thus neglecting mass education.
The British planned to educate a small section of upper and middle classes, thus creating a class “Indian in blood and colour but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect”.
This small section of educated middle class will serve them as interpreters between the government and masses and also they would enrich the vernaculars by which knowledge of Western sciences and literature would reach the masses. This was called ‘Downward Infiltration Theory’.
