A puzzling argument in the post-colonial period is that the European colonial enterprise was an outrage to the dignity of post-colonial nation-states when in fact, these nation-states did not even exist prior to the end of colonialism. The people of the colonies did not necessarily see European rule in the same light as it is seen today. I will argue that Western education positively helped the eventual independence of colonies because it taught natives the European assumptions of freedom and equality, thus providing the framework to become an independent state. I will specifically compare and contrast British approaches to education to British India and Africa. British India provided an apropos example of how education can successfully benefit
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Obviously, one cannot replace the millions dead from the Atlantic Slave Trade nor disregard the institutions that caused abhorrent racial discrimination and segregation. Yet the common assumption that the United Kingdom’s “imperialism was economically exploitative, that every facet of colonial rule … [was] designed to maximize the surplus value that could be extracted from the subject peoples” fails to recognize the lasting British legacies imprinted on her colonies.(Ferguson 2002, xvii). True, British advancements in Africa and India had many economic incentives but to declare it was the sole reason for colonialism neglects to see missionaries and educational institutions that demonstrated to natives ideas of individual liberty and self-determination. The post colonialism argument complaints of the evils of colonialism, such as how it took away the “dignity” of a colonized country, that it was a moral affront to the “freedom” of natives, actually comes from the education that the colonizers taught to the locals. Ironically, this idea of “freedom” that was taken away by Western European empires is the same freedom ideology perpetuated by religious, political and educational institutions brought by Europeans. For the British Empire, once a colonized society implemented the establishments brought by the British, it became difficult to forbid the same political liberties that Britain had applied to herself. Thus, Western education formed the groundwork for colonies to transform to modern
Obviously, one cannot replace the millions dead from the Atlantic Slave Trade nor disregard the institutions that caused abhorrent racial discrimination and segregation. Yet the common assumption that the United Kingdom’s “imperialism was economically exploitative, that every facet of colonial rule … [was] designed to maximize the surplus value that could be extracted from the subject peoples” fails to recognize the lasting British legacies imprinted on her colonies.(Ferguson 2002, xvii). True, British advancements in Africa and India had many economic incentives but to declare it was the sole reason for colonialism neglects to see missionaries and educational institutions that demonstrated to natives ideas of individual liberty and self-determination. The post colonialism argument complaints of the evils of colonialism, such as how it took away the “dignity” of a colonized country, that it was a moral affront to the “freedom” of natives, actually comes from the education that the colonizers taught to the locals. Ironically, this idea of “freedom” that was taken away by Western European empires is the same freedom ideology perpetuated by religious, political and educational institutions brought by Europeans. For the British Empire, once a colonized society implemented the establishments brought by the British, it became difficult to forbid the same political liberties that Britain had applied to herself. Thus, Western education formed the groundwork for colonies to transform to modern