The Interesting Narrative Of Equiano And Macaulay's Minute On Indian Education

Ever since Britain has established itself as a powerful empire, there has been a clear impression of white superiority as shown in Olaudah Equiano’s “The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself” and Thomas Macaulay’s “Minute on Indian Education.” In Equiano’s narrative, he writes of his life as an enslaved black man who has to constantly submit to the white men. Macaulay’s “Minute” speaks of all the reasons why the British should indeed impose their language and education on the Indians. In both cases, white men feel superior above the other race and believe that they have the power and right to rule. The written accounts of Equiano and Macaulay show the factors that brought these beliefs

For Macaulay, he thinks that the Indians had such a poor language and that it cannot carry any intellectual value. He believes they were teaching false history, astronomy, and medicine all found “in company with a false religion” (Macaulay 1642). When he wants to form interpreters, he calls for them to be “English in taste, in opinions, in morals, and in intellect” (1642). To me, it seems that Macaulay has a biased preference for his own culture only because that is what he was raised to understand. Macaulay thinks that the British were doing everything correct and in greater value, and he allows these beliefs to put himself into a position where he thinks that he can govern the Indians as he wants. Though the reader is not able to get the white man’s perspective and intentions in Equiano’s narrative, cultural differences are indeed mentioned. Equiano is surprised at how the white men did not sell each other as the Africans did (Equiano 101), and that shows how further progressed the white culture is from the black culture.

The feelings of superiority do take on different interpretations in these two texts. Macaulay does not have an intention to keep the Indians submissive. If he wanted to just rule over them, he would have kept them ignorant. He simply thinks that the Indians need to be educated, and so in his eyes, only a people as intelligent

Equiano prefers death in order to end the life of misery that he was living. In fact, death is his request to God. When he recalls back on his time in slavery, only memories of grief remain, and this is clearly something that he cannot forget nor push to the back of his mind. This emotional trauma is something that affects Equiano for the rest of his life. White supremacy is dominating. It prompts change, affects societal standards, and affects lives. It has been something that has risen out of biased ideas, but it has been carried so far and worked its way into the minds of many. People have allowed this belief of superiority and inferiority to dictate their attitude and the way they carry out their lives. Though there are two different scenarios described in these texts, there are major resemblances in the controlling opinion and actions of the whites and the submission of the blacks and Indians – all of which come from the expectation in roles given out by white