The “Civilising Mission”

27.3.3: The “Civilising Mission”

The British used the rationale of “civilising mission” to justify their imperial control of India and to introduce limited reforms to produce a qualified white-collar labor force that loyally supported colonial rule.

Learning Objective

Define the “civilising mission”

Key Points

  • The mission civilisatrice, a French term that translates literally into English as civilising mission, is a rationale for intervention or colonization, purporting to contribute to the spread of civilization and used mostly in relation to the colonization and Westernization of indigenous peoples in the 19th and 20th centuries. Its advocates postulated a duty of Europeans to help “backwards” peoples “civilize.”
  • In India, the British “civilising mission” focused largely on educational reforms designed to speed up modernization and reduce administrative charges. Colonial authorities fervently debated the question of the best policy. The orientalists believed that education should happen in Indian languages while the utilitarians (also called anglicists) strongly believed that traditional India had nothing to teach regarding modern skills and the best education would happen in English.
  • One of the most influential reformers was Thomas Babington Macaulay, who in 1835 authored “Minute on Indian Education.” In it, he urged the Governor-General to reform secondary education on utilitarian lines to deliver “useful learning,” which to Macaulay was synonymous with Western culture. He argued that Sanskrit and Persian were no more accessible than English to the speakers of the Indian vernacular languages and existing Sanskrit and Persian texts were of little use for “useful learning.”
  • Macaulay’s text largely coincided with Governor-General William Bentinck’s views and Bentinck’s English Education Act 1835 closely matched Macaulay’s recommendations. Under Macaulay, thousands of elementary and secondary schools were opened, typically with all-male student bodies. However, Macaulay’s views enjoyed little support in London and subsequent Governors-General took a more conciliatory approach to existing Indian education.
  • Missionaries opened their own schools that taught Christianity and the 3-Rs (reading, writing, and arithmetic). Universities in Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras were established in 1857. The government opened 186 universities and colleges of higher education by 1911. All these benefits, however, went to the Indian elites and middle classes, who were expected to serve as loyal supporters of the British rule in India.
  • The “civilising mission” rhetoric continued, but soon became an alibi for British misrule and racism without the pretense that Indian progress was ever a goal. Those who advocated actual reforms became less influential. The British assumed Indians had to be ruled by heavy hand, with democratic opportunities postponed indefinitely.

\Key Terms

civilising mission
A rationale for intervention or colonization purporting to contribute to the spread of civilization, used mostly in relation to the colonization and Westernization of indigenous peoples in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Whig history
An approach to historiography that presents the past as an inevitable progression towards ever greater liberty and enlightenment, culminating in modern forms of liberal democracy and constitutional monarchy. In general, historians representing this approach emphasize the rise of constitutional government, personal freedoms, and scientific progress. The term is often applied generally (and pejoratively) to histories that present the past as the inexorable march of progress towards enlightenment.

 

Intellectual Origins of “Civilising Mission”

The mission civilisatrice, a French term which translates literally into English as civilising mission, is a rationale for intervention or colonization, purporting to contribute to the spread of civilization and used mostly in relation to the colonization and Westernization of indigenous peoples in the 19th and 20th centuries. It was influential in the French colonies of Algeria, French West Africa, and Indochina and in the Portuguese colonies of Angola, Guinea, Mozambique, and Timor. The rationale was also used by the British in their Asian and African colonies. The European colonial powers argued it was their duty to bring Western civilization to what they perceived as backward people. In addition to governing colonies, the Europeans also attempted to Westernize them in accordance with a colonial ideology known as “assimilation.” They aimed to influence indigenous elites who would loyally support imperial rule.

The intellectual origins of the mission civilisatrice trace back to the European thinkers, who discussed the idea of social change by using a development metaphor. In the 18th century, many saw history as a linear unending inevitable process of social evolutionism with the European nations running ahead. Racism underlined the arguments of two dominant lines of thought that emerged from this assumption. Some Europeans saw the “backward” nations as intrinsically incapable of reaching what Europeans saw as a more advanced level of social development. Others did not deny non-European societies these capabilities but postulated a duty to help those peoples “civilize.”

 

The Role of Education

In India, the British “civilising mission” focused largely on educational reforms. Education in English became a high priority with the goal to speed up modernization and reduce administrative charges. Colonial authorities fervently debated the question of the best policy, falling roughly in one of the two main camps. The orientalists believed that education should happen in Indian languages and favored classical or court languages like Sanskrit or Persian. Conversely, the utilitarians (also called anglicists) strongly believed that traditional India had nothing to teach regarding modern skills and the best education would happen in English.

One of the most influential reformers, Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859), belonged to the latter group. Macaulay was a historian and politician who represented the tradition of Whig history, according to which the past is an inevitable progression towards ever greater liberty and enlightenment, culminating in modern forms of liberal democracy and constitutional monarchy. In general, Whig historians emphasize the rise of constitutional government, personal freedoms, and scientific progress.

Macauley went to India in 1834 and served on the Supreme Council of India until 1838. At the time, he authored his famous “Minute on Indian Education” (1835), in which he urged the Governor-General to reform secondary education on utilitarian lines to deliver “useful learning,” which to Macaulay was synonymous with Western culture. Macaulay argued that Sanskrit and Persian were no more accessible than English to the speakers of the Indian vernacular languages and existing Sanskrit and Persian texts were of little use for “useful learning.” Although he did not know Sanskrit or Arabic, he claimed that all Western experts could not “deny that a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia.” Hence, he advocated that from the sixth year of schooling, students should be taught a European curriculum in English. This aimed to create a class of anglicized Indians to serve as cultural intermediaries between the British and the Indians. Macualay assumed that the creation of such a class was necessary before any reform of vernacular education.

Macaulay’s text largely coincided with Governor-General William Bentinck’s views and Bentinck’s English Education Act 1835 closely matched Macaulay’s recommendations. Under Macaulay, thousands of elementary and secondary schools opened, typically with all-male student bodies. However, Macaulay’s views enjoyed little support in London and subsequent Governors-General took a more conciliatory approach to existing Indian education.

Missionaries opened their own schools that taught Christianity and the 3-Rs (reading, writing, and arithmetic). Universities in Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras were established in 1857, just before the Rebellion. By 1890, some 60,000 Indians had matriculated, chiefly in the liberal arts or law. About a third entered public administration and another third became lawyers. The result was a very well-educated professional state bureaucracy. By 1887, of 21,000 mid-level civil service appointments, 45% were held by Hindus, 7% by Muslims, 19% by Eurasians (European father and Indian mother), and 29% by Europeans. Of the 1,000 top-level positions, almost all were held by Britons, typically with Oxbridge degrees. The government, often working with local philanthropists, opened 186 universities and colleges of higher education by 1911 and enrolled 36,000 students (over 90% men). By 1939, the number of institutions had doubled and enrollment reached 145,000. The curriculum followed classical British standards et by Oxford and Cambridge and stressed English literature and European history. All these benefits of education, however, went to the Indian elites and middle classes, who were expected to serve as loyal supporters of the British rule in India. Historians of Indian education have generally linked the idea of educational reform under the British rule to colonial dominance and control.

The “civilising mission” rhetoric continued, but soon became an alibi for British misrule and racism, this time without even pretending that Indian progress was ever a goal. Those who advocated actual reforms became less influential. Instead, the British assumed Indians had to be ruled by heavy hand with democratic opportunities postponed indefinitely, although some English historians argued that the so-called liberal imperialists truly believed that the British rule would bring the benefits of “ordered liberty” and Britain could fulfill its moral duty. Much of the debate on the role of Britain in India took place in Britain, where the imperialists worked hard to convince the general population that the “civilising mission” was well under-way. This campaign served to strengthen imperial support at home and thus bolster the moral authority of the elites who ran the Empire.

University of Bombay: A photo of University of Mumbai’s Fort Campus taken in the 1870s. Rajabai Clock Tower, seen here shrouded in scaffolding, was completed in 1878. 

Attributions