The greatness of Macaulay

Thomas Babington Lord Macaulay, a darling of the glitterati and the chattering, a historian par excellence in Victorian England, who rose to fame, power and wealth during his time in England and in many parts of Europe and the US, has finally met his match in Robert E. Sullivan who had laid bare his upbringing, his charisma, his complex character and the reasons for his ultimate oblivion, thanks to his access to Macaulay's diaries, journals and letters.

England, or Great Britain now, may have forgotten Macaulay; there is, however, a special reason why Macaulay will always have a special place in India.

Preparing the ground for India

It was in India that Macaulay, in his first overseas political posting, despite hating each and everything India had to offer, insisted upon and brought about laws for imparting English education to Indians, because he believed that “whosoever knows (English), has ready access to the vast intellectual wealth, which all the wisest nations of the earth have created and horded in the course of ninety generations”.

That this was reviled by many of us for having created a multitude of clerks for England may have some validity; it also cannot be disputed that this very act of his not only hastened the political awareness in India but also brought about a vastly educated Indian multitude ready to face globalisation on surer grounds.

Credit for drafting the Code

Credit is also due to Macaulay for having drafted the Criminal Procedure Code for India, while he was appointed President of Indian law Commission in 1835 with a mandate to ensure that India became “the first country on the earth to boast a system of law and judicature as near to perfection as the circumstances of the people will admit”. This he did within a period of two years while professing “We know that India cannot have a free Government. But she can have the next best thing — a firm and impartial despotism”. Although the draft was wrangled over for many years in the British Parliament, it was eventually passed with hardly any major modifications, and the core of this is still in place in India, a good 150 years after he died.

It is fascinating that the present book brings out all the facets of Macaulay's character, his unhappy childhood; his hatred for his father Zachary; his brilliant student days; his passion for his two sisters, Margaret and Hannah, much younger to him, one of whom he lost to death and the other to marriage, and the loss of whom he carried all his life; a political climber and permanent member of English ruling caste; a highly opinionated essayist; a nationalist historian with an eye to the cash register, with warts and all…holds barred.

Although long for a biography (487 pages), worth a read for those who wish to peep into the lives of such characters who had a great political, literary and moral influence during Victorian England.

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