It was the English language which united the Indian intelligentsia. It was the English language which served as the lingua franca for right from Bal Gangadhar Tilak to Nehru to fight the British Indian government for freedom of India. There is no doubt that the English language played an important part in achieving freedom for the country and Lord Macaulay should be thanked for it.
If the Indians could compete with his American and European counterparts in the study of Medicine, Engineering and other subjects of science much to the envy of students of China, Japan and West Asian countries, it was only due to their studies in the English language.
Macaulay was born at Leicestershire, England on 25th October, 1800. He proved himself a child prodigy when he was barely three years old. He was a bibliophile at that age. A few incidents prove this. When he was four he visited a noble lady along with his mother. The lady received them graciously and served them with hot coffee. The lady accidentally spilled some coffee on little Maucalay's foot. "Is it burning my child?' she asked anxiously. "No Madam, the agony had abated,"Macaulay replied. The quotation which Macaulay used to say that the pain had gone, was from the book of a famous writer. The hostess was surprised at this. Later when the two ladies fell into conversation for sometime, little Macaulay spent his time in the home library of the lady, going through "Lay of the Last Minstrel" by Walter Scott.
When asked what he had understood in the book, Macaulay recited to his mother stanza by stanza with meaning of the book.
He was 25, when he hit the headlines of literary magazines with his critical essay on John Milton.
As an young poet he composed many ballads on the heroic deeds of ancient Roman warriors which he published under the title "Lays of Ancient Rome."
Macaulay wrote the 'History Of The World" when he was seven years old. His well wishers who read that book, predicted that he would become a great historian in future. He brought out four volumes of The History of England from the accession of James the second to the Peace of Ryswick in 1855. He was working on the fifth volume of the series when he died with heart attack. He hoped to finish this volume with the death of William the 111. His sister Lady Trevelyan prepared this volume for publication after his death. His history volumes were read by many Royal personages as an absorbing mega novel thanks to his narrative talents.
After the British government had passed the Government of India Act, Macaulay came to India in 1834 to serve on the Supreme Council of India from that year to 1838. He introduced English as medium of instruction in schools and colleges through his famous "The Minutes On Indian Education Of February 1835." He called for a class of anglicised Indians who would serve as intermediaries between the British and the Indians. Thus he put an end to the debate on introducing English as official language by replacing the persian, put forward by the Governor General of India Lord Bentinck earlier. This way Macaulay put the liberal and utilitarian ideas of Lord Bentinck into practice. But many of his British counterparts could not bear the ideas of Indians soon talking to them in English. Hence he was ostrascised by them socially and even English dailies were denied at his door step. But he bore the insults with great fortitude.
His final years in India were devoted to the creation of a Penal Code, as the leading member of the Law Commission.
The Indian Penal Code in 1860 was followed by the Criminal Procedure Code in 1872 and the Civil Procedure Code in 1909. The Indian Penal Code was not only in use in India today but also in Pakistan, Singapore, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Sri Lanka, erstwhile British colonies.
With deep satisfaction that he had done what was due to the Indians, Macaulay left for England and breathed his last on the 28th December, 1859.
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