Colonial Citizen as an Educational Ideal

Abstract

an adult-child relationship. The coloniser took the role of the adult, and the native became the child. The adult-child relationship entailed an educational task. The colonial master saw it as his responsibility to initiate the native into new ways of acting and thinking. Like the little elephant Babar in the children's series of that name, some of the natives had to be educated so that they would be civilised according to the master's idea.2 This may be a simplistic summary, but it does capture the core agenda of colonial rule and education. The agenda was to train the native to become a citizen. Writing in 'The Citizen of India' (a school textbook that lasted for many years) in 1897, Lee-Warner described the British Empire as an educational experionce for India. It did not matter that the system of education had remained rather limited, he argued, for it was wrong to judge the education of India merely by the development of the education system. The railways, the public works, the posts and telegraphs were all educational agencies-of the empire. They all showed the benevolence, the industriousness, and the dedication of English administrators, he said.3