Thomas macaulay is most famous for having introduced the english language as a medium for learning in india, creating a class of westernized indians who are sometimes derisively referred to as ‘macaulay's children'. Was this an act of cultural imperialism or a modernizing move far before its time? this is the first biography of this vastly influential figure for the general reader, giving a vivid sense of a brilliant, eccentric, contradictory man and his complex times. Tracing macaulay's fascinating journey, zareer masani allows the reader to glimpse into what it felt like to be at the centre of power in a global empire, ruling over hundreds of millions of indian subjects and shaping the destiny of a subcontinent.