Thomas Macaulay

The Right Honourable The Lord Macaulay PC
Photogravure of Macaulay by Antoine Claudet
Secretary at War
In office 27 September 1839 – 30 August 1841
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	The Viscount Melbourne
Preceded by	Viscount Howick
Succeeded by	Sir Henry Hardinge
Paymaster-General
In office 7 July 1846 – 8 May 1848
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	Lord John Russell
Preceded by	Hon. Bingham Baring
Succeeded by	The Earl Granville
Personal details
Born	25 October 1800 (1800-10-25) Leicestershire, England
Died	28 December 1859(1859-12-28) (aged 59) London, England
Nationality	British
Political party	Whig
Alma mater	Trinity College, Cambridge
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Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay, PC (25 October 1800 – 28 December 1859) was a British historian and Whig politician. He wrote extensively as an essayist and reviewer; his books on British history have been hailed as literary masterpieces. Macaulay held political office as the Secretary at War between 1839 and 1841, and the Paymaster-General between 1846 and 1848. He played a major role in introducing English and western concepts to education in India, publishing his argument on the subject in the "Macaulay Minute" published in 1835. He supported the replacement of Persian by English as the official language, the use of English as the medium of instruction in all schools, and the training of English-speaking Indians as teachers.

In his view, Macaulay divided the world into civilised nations and barbarism, with Britain representing the high point of civilisation. In his Minute on Indian Education of February 1835, he asserted, "It is, I believe, no exaggeration to say that all the historical information which has been collected from all the books written in the Sanskrit language is less valuable than what may be found in the most paltry abridgement used at preparatory schools in England". He was wedded to the Idea of Progress, especially in terms of the liberal freedoms. He opposed radicalism while idealising historic British culture and traditions.

Macaulay was the son of Zachary Macaulay, a Scottish Highlander, who became a colonial governor and abolitionist, and Selina Mills of Bristol, a former pupil of Hannah More. They named their first child after his uncle Thomas Babington, a Leicestershire landowner and politician, who had married Zachary's sister Jean. Thomas Macaulay was born in Leicestershire, England, where he was noted as a child prodigy. As a toddler, gazing out of the window from his cot at the chimneys of a local factory, he is reputed to have asked his father whether the smoke came from the fires of hell.