The Enduring Colonial Legacy in Modern India
In a thought-provoking opinion piece published on November 23, 2025, veteran journalist Tavleen Singh delivered a sharp critique of what she describes as the persistent colonial mindset in Indian governance and society, despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi's public denouncement of Macaulay's education system.
The article, which first appeared in The Indian Express at 07:02 AM IST, begins with Singh's personal confession: she identifies as one of the "products of Macaulay's education system" that the Prime Minister criticized during his recent Ramnath Goenka Memorial lecture.
Political Rhetoric vs Governance Reality
Singh acknowledges Modi's criticism of Thomas Babington Macaulay's education system, which the Prime Minister said was designed to create "little brown English people who would be Indian in name only." She admits this assessment is "absolutely true" based on her own educational experience at a girls' school modeled entirely on English public schools.
However, Singh questions whether the Prime Minister has noticed how colonial practices continue to dominate governance structures under his administration. She points to several concrete examples that demonstrate this persistence:
The Maharashtra BJP government recently issued written instructions ordering officials to stand when they spot MPs or MLAs. When Singh commented on this practice on social media platform X, she received significant pushback from Hindutva supporters who argued this was appropriate deference to elected representatives.
Singh challenges this view, asking: "Why? Are they not supposed to be servants of the people? Is this attitude not a product of that colonial mindset?"
Colonial Governance Structures Remain Intact
The columnist highlights other examples of colonial-era practices that continue unchanged. She questions why unelected Governors need to live in palaces in the most expensive residential areas of state capitals, noting that this colonial attitude toward housing has a remarkable trickle-down effect.
"In rural parts, the Collector also lives in palatial accommodation," Singh observes. "He is so powerful and so far away from the concerns and problems of rural people that they hesitate to approach him for anything."
She specifically calls for the abolition of the Collector position, noting that "there are no collectors in the United Kingdom and never have been. It is a colonial post that should have been abolished decades ago."
Education System: From Brown English to Brown American
Singh argues that colonial influence extends beyond governance into the education system. She notes that elite Indian schools continue using English as the medium of instruction, and that political leaders and high officials send their children to these institutions.
"Indian literature, music, poetry, philosophy and languages are still taught in these schools as if they were inferior," she writes. The only significant change she identifies is that instead of Indian children aspiring to be "little brown English people," they now aspire to be "little brown American people."
While acknowledging that learning English has practical benefits in today's globalized world, Singh emphasizes that the curriculum needs fundamental change to properly teach "India's stupendous contribution to the civilisation of the world."
She expresses frustration that despite most major states being governed by BJP chief ministers, government school curricula continue teaching "the same old stuff they were taught when my kind of colonial types ruled India."
Hindutva and Intellectual Alienation
Singh offers a critical perspective on the Hindutva movement, describing it as the dominant ideology of contemporary India. However, she argues that instead of focusing on "high things as civilisation," it restricts itself to spreading religiosity.
She observes that most Hindutva adherents she encounters speak passionately about having become "proud Hindus," but this generally means they have become more religious and go on more pilgrimages than before. "They like to spout Sanskrit shlokas and quote the Bhagavad Gita but that is the extent of their knowledge of India's civilisation," she notes.
Singh concludes with a powerful prescription for genuine change: "For things to really change you need institutions that are led by real historians (not pamphleteers), philosophers, scientists, scholars, linguists, writers and thinkers."
She argues that these intellectuals have been alienated by "the religiosity and hate mongering of those who lead the Hindutva movement" and by their conviction that Modi is allergic to intellectuals. These thinkers stay away from the "colonial bungalows in Lutyens' Delhi" where British officials once lived and where current Indian leaders now reside.
Through this comprehensive analysis, Tavleen Singh presents a challenging perspective on the gap between political rhetoric about decolonization and the reality of persistent colonial structures and mindsets in contemporary India.
