The Story of

English in India

N. Krishnaswamy
Lalitha Krishnaswamy

FOUNDATION
K S

DELHI • BANGALORE • MUMBAI • KOLKATA • CHENNAI • HYDERABAD

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© Cambridge University Press India Pvt. Ltd.

First published 2006

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 Contents
Introduction v
Acknowledgements viii
1. The Exploration and Transportation Phase 1
1.1 The Pre-Transportation and Exploration 1
Phase (up to 1813)
1.2 The Transportation Phase (1813-30) 16
2. The Consolidation Phase: The Grand Design 27
2.1 Renewal of the Charter 27
2.2 Comes Macaulay 29
2.3 Macaulay's Minute 30
2.4 The Aftermath of the Minute 43
2.5 Wood's Despatch 47
2.6 In Theory and in Practice 52
2.7 India: A Trial Ground 53
2.8 The Indian Education Commission of 1882 56
3. The Dissemination Phase 63
3.1 Then Came Lord Curzon 63
3.2 The Indian Universities Commission 66
3.3 The Government of India Resolution of 1904 68
3.4 The Indian Universities Act 70
3.5 The Growing Demand and Uniformity 71
3.6 English as a Unifying Agency 74
3.7 Unification and Destruction 76
3.8 The Government of India Resolution of 1913 80
3.9 Calcutta University Commission (1917-19) 82
3.10 The Swadeshi Movement 89
3.11 The Two World Wars 91
3.12 Reports and more Reports 91
3.13 During the Struggle for Independence 96
3.14 English Becomes a Second Language 103
iv The Story of English in India

4. The Identity Phase 108

4.1 The White Ruler Departs 108
4.2 Reverence and Abhorrence 109
4.3 Lessons from History 111
4.4 More Commissions and Committees 114
4.5 Other Developments in English Teaching 125
4.6 National Policy on Education 1968 130
4.7 The Study Group Report on the Teaching 131
of English (1969-71)
4.8 National Policy on Education 1986 132
4.9 Acharya Ramamurti Commission 1990 133
4.10 Curriculum Development Centre 1989 134
4.11 The English Boom in India 138
4.12 The English of Indians or 'Indians' English' 142
5. The Globalization Phase 149
5.1 From Agrarian Life to IT Revolution 149
5.2 English as a Global Language 150
5.3 The Changing Role of English 154
5.4 India at Peace with English 156
5.5 Indians' English: An Outline 161
5.6 English and Indian Languages 169
5.7 Neo-colonialism, Globalization and English 170
5.8 Teaching English in Post-Independence India: 177
A Search for Alternatives
Appendix I 186
Appendix II 188
Appendix III 205
Appendix IV 220
Further Reading 222
Index 224
 Introduction

The Story of English in India is a fascinating story of power and

resistance, of invasion and absorption, and of authority and
subversion; it is as absorbing as any historical novel. The book
outlines the growth and development of English in India, with
a view to redefining the aims and goals of teaching English in
post-Independence India. It is also meant to create an
awareness and an in-depth understanding of the impact of
English and English education—their positive as well as
negative effects—on the Indian subcontinent. From a symbol
of colonialism and imperialism, the English language has become
a neutral tool of communication in the new millennium—a global
gold mine.
The history of English in India is inextricably entangled with
the politics of the Empire, both political and economic. The
English language and English literature were central to the
cultural indoctrination and transplantation effected through
English education. An understanding of the following is provided
in this book.
• How, and with what motives, English and English
education were introduced in India
• How, over the years, English has evolved into the lingua
franca of urban India
• What the role of English was during the struggle for
India's independence
• How, during the freedom struggle, Indians subverted
the language from the inside, by using it for purposes
other than those for which it was intended by the rulers
• How the English language has affected India's languages
and its culture
vi The Story of English in India

• How English is threatening their very existence

• How English has brought about immense possibilities for
English-knowing Indians in the 'Info-Age', particularly after
the IT revolution
• How the vast majority of the population is yet to reap
the benefits of English
The impact of economic globalization has changed the role of
English in India. Contemporary India seems to have separated
the English language from the English rulers, and the country
has shed its colonial complexes towards English. The nation
has come to terms with English, and Indians have understood
that, with globalization, English has become an economic
necessity, and that they have the 'English advantage' over many
other countries like China, Japan and Germany. Shall we thank
the colonial rulers for introducing English and English education
in India? Can we say that India's unity and Indian nationalism
are the by-products of English education? The spread of English
has started affecting the semi-urban and rural areas of the
country, and there is an increasing demand for the teaching of
communication skills in English to all. 'English for the masses
and not just for the classes' is the new slogan heard everywhere.
Will the spread of English result in linguistic globalization and
cultural colonization? Will the English 'tidal wave' sweep away
Indian languges and Indian heritage? Such issues are the
concern of the people of India.
The Story of English in India raises several interesting issues that
are worth thinking about. This book is a must for all teachers
and students of English. All the important historical documents
concerned with the teaching of English in India are included in
the volume, to make it more informative. The book will also be
extremely useful to anyone interested in the dynamics of the
power of English and English education in India. The sources
of material in the book are very old and varied, and therefore it
has not been possible to trace them all.
 Introduction vii

We sincerely hope that a full paper on 'English in India' becomes

a compulsory subject in the programmes offered at the
postgraduate level in Indian universities soon. We also hope to
rekindle nationalistic feelings through the history of English in
India, so that the Indian society as a whole benefits from English
and English education.
Happy reading.
Authors
 Acknowledgements

We owe thanks to

• T. Sriraman, Professor, CIEFL, Hyderabad, for a careful

reading of the script and detailed comments that vastly
improved the final draft.
• Our students, who made us feel the need for a book
like this.
• Foundation Books, for the constant encouragement and
help we received in preparing the manuscript.

N. Krishnaswamy
Lalitha Krishnaswamy
 The Exploration and
Transportation Phase

1.1 The Pre-Transportation and Exploration

Phase (up to 1813)
1.1.1 Waves and Waves; Layers and Layers
The Indian subcontinent, comprising what are now called India,
Pakistan and Bangladesh, has absorbed several innovations in
the past.
EARLY SETTLERS
The Aryans came and settled down in the subcontinent.
Sometime in the remote past (probably during the second half
of the second millennium BC), the Aryans must have entered
India. They were part of a group that must have lived in a
compact area (the exact location of which is still a riddle),
speaking Sanskrit, Persian, Latin, Greek, French, German: a
group called Indo-European, Indo-Aryan or Indo-Germanic
languages. The Aryans emigrated to India and brought with
them their language, Sanskrit or Samskrity (which meant
'carefully made or perfected')—a literary language known as
the 'high-speech'. Later, the Prakrits (i.e. the vernaculars or
the dialects) developed, and the most important one, Pali,
became the language of Buddhist and Jain thought and
literature. Sanskrit became a representation of the Vedic
civilization and the Prakrits developed into several languages of
the common people—Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi, Bengali, Punjabi,
and so on. They were written in the Devanagari script. Sanskrit
became the language of the learned class.
Even before the Aryans came to the subcontinent, there was a
glorious civilization that belonged to a highly developed
community flourishing in the Indus Valley. The beginnings of
2 The Story of English in India

this civilization are still a riddle—some trace it to a Sumerian

origin and some to a non-Aryan, pre-Aryan or perhaps Dravidian
origin. The Aryan wave added one more layer to what was already
existent in the Indus Valley.
The early Aryans, who had settled down in the Indus Valley,
soon grew in number. This started waves of migration towards
the east and the south. The pre-Aryan people too moved towards
the east and the south. This long process of Aryanization of
the Indian subcontinent is depicted in the epics like the
Ramayana and the Mahabharata. The Indus Valley (now called
the Punjab) receded in importance and the Ganges valley became
the 'Madhyadesa'.
Literature in Sanskrit deals with dance and drama, philosophy
and grammar, history and politics, astronomy and astrology, algebra,
medicine, and jurisprudence. There were many important scholars
and thinkers like Bharata (Natyasastra), Kalidasa {Sakuntala,
Meghaduta etcetera), Valmiki {Ramayana), Vyasa (Mahabharata),
Subandhu {Vasavadatta), Panini and Aryabhatta.
Then came the Persians. As a result of the expansion of the
Persian empire, about the middle of the sixth century BC,
emperors Cyrus, Darius and others, leading expeditions against
India, came up to the Punjab and Sind. These expeditions, in
a way, cleared the way for Alexander's invasion of India. After
the overthrow of the Persian empire, Alexander came up to the
Jhelum, the Chenab and the Beas, and went back in the autumn
of 326 BC. So, Persian and Greek influences are also found in the
art and architecture of the Indian subcontinent.
Great revolutions were taking place in the area of religion as
well. The search for alternatives to ritual-ridden Hinduism
opened the path for religious revolution. During the fifth and
fourth centuries BC, Mahavira and Gautama Buddha presented
humane religions, open to all. Jainism and Buddhism represented
a revolt against polytheism and the spiritual claims of a certain
class; these religions were open to all irrespective of age, sex or
social status; and they used the vernaculars of the locality and
 The Exploration and Transportation Phase 3

not Sanskrit, as their language. These religions added more

layers to the cultural heritage of the Indian subcontinent.
Alexander's exit, in a way, paved the way for the Mauryan
Empire; a great empire built by a succession of emperors like
Chandragupta Maurya, Asoka and others. Harsha was the last
Hindu emperor of Northern India; after his death, his empire
split into a number of small kingdoms.
Contemporaneous with the imperial Guptas, the Vakataka
dynasty ruled over central India. It was a vast Hindu empire.
The early Chalukyas of Badami, a dynasty founded by Pulakesin
and his son Vikramaditya (AD 680) were also Hindus and they
developed the 'Chalukyan style' in art. From AD 1200 the
Chalukya line gradually declined and they became mere local
chiefs in the Konkan region. However, this kingdom of the
Deccan left its layers of culture on Indian civilization.
The southern part of the peninsula was not very much affected
by the invasions from the northwest, but the waves had their
ripples everywhere. The kingdoms of South India, the Cholas,
the Pandyas, the Pallavas, the Cheras, and the Hoysalas have all
left their lasting imprints on art, architecture, music, literature,
fine arts, religion and many other areas enriching Indian heritage.
Though there were countless kingdoms, all of them, starting
from the Aryans, were settlers; their languages, like Sanskrit,
Pali and others, were the settlers' languages; their literature
was the settlers' literature. Most of the invaders of the
subcontinent settled down in it and contributed to the multiple
layers of its culture and heritage. This was the position till the
tenth century AD.
The reports by some Arab merchants of the fabulous wealth and
luxuries of India, and the eastern expansion of the Arab empire
brought the Arabs to the frontiers of India. Repeated conquests
were attempted upon the coast of India with the aim of plunder
and not settlement. The Rajput chiefs fought these invaders
but the interaction had its effects on Muslim culture. All the
scientific elements in Arab scholarship in philosophy,
4 The Story of English in India

mathematics, astronomy, medicine, chemistry etcetera were

borrowed directly from India during the eighth and ninth
centuries.
LATER SETTLERS

Early Muslim invaders crossed the frontier in AD 1000. The lure

of plunder brought them to Hindustan and their raids were
repeated with remarkable frequency. Sultan Mahmud of Ghazni
made as many as seventeen raids between AD 1000 and AD 1021
and carried away immense booties of gold, silver, precious stones
and pearls. He ransacked the great temple of Somnath and
looted the accumulated treasures of the ages that he found in
the temple. The subcontinent faced Muslim invasions once
again in the twelfth century. Muhammad of Ghori did more or
less the same as Mahmud of Ghazni. Only in AD 1200 was the
Delhi Sultanate established, with the Slave Dynasty.
The history of the Muslim progress in the Indian subcontinent
can be divided into two periods:
1. The period of early conquests and administrative
experiments
2. The period of imperial glory and the achievements of the
grand Mughals from Babar (1526-30) to Aurangzeb
(1658-1700)
The Mughal Empire reached its highest point of expansion,
stability, solidarity and prosperity under the great Mughals like
Akbar and Shah Jahan. Shah Jahan's reign is sometimes referred
to as the 'Golden Age of the Mughals'. Though the early contact
of Hinduism and Islam was neither pleasant nor peaceful, the
perpetual enmity between them could not continue for long,
and the people of the two faiths soon started living as
neighbours. At the same time, the two religions were strong,
well-developed and virile; each with a marked individuality of
its own; and a fusion of one with the other was impossible.
Aurangazeb's policy of religious fanaticism, combined with other
factors like administrative inefficiency, the invasions of the
 The Exploration and Transportation Phase 5

Persian king Nadir Shah, the raids of the Afghan king, Ahmed
Shah Abdali, and the rise of European power, caused the decline
of the Mughal empire. Finally, the triumph of the British sealed
its doom. The Mughal Empire was regarded by the vast majority
of its subjects as essentially an alien power, and hence, in spite
of its Indian setting, could not evoke in the people the feelings
of intense loyalty and patriotism that the Rajputs or the Marathas
had succeeded in doing. As a result, the Muslim rulers remained
part-settlers.
However, the Muslims contributed their share of layers to the
cultural heritage of India. Persian was the language of the court
and the language of literature; Arabic was the language of their
religion, Islam. As a result of their interaction with the languages
of India, a new linguistic entity, called Urdu, was born, adding a
new layer to the linguistic heritage of the subcontinent. The
word Urdu is Turkish and it means 'army' or 'camp'; the name
of the language came into vogue only in the late eighteenth
century. The language originated in Lahore when the troops of
Mahmud of Ghazni 'settled' down there in AD 1027. To begin
with, it was old Punjabi with a mixture of Persian; it then spread
to Delhi and intermixed with Hindi. The Urdu language
represents a linguistic process by which the invaders gave up
their own language in favour of the local speech of the
subcontinent. The ornate part of the language came from Persio-
Arabic words and the daily idiom from Hindi discourse. The
Urdu language, which is now the official language of Pakistan,
is used only in the Indian subcontinent. Urdu uses the Persio-
Arabic script and Hindi, the Devanagari script. The basic
vocabulary and the rules of grammar in Urdu and Hindi are more
or less the same.

1.1.2 The Advent of Europeans

THE PORTUGUESE AND THE DUTCH

In 1498, Vasco da Gama discovered a new sea route to India.

This resulted in the diversion of the European trade with India
to the maritime States of Western Europe like Portugal, France
6 The Story of English in India

and England. First came the Portuguese; they established a

number of colonies or settlements along the west coast of India.
Francisco d'Almeida was the first Portuguese viceroy in the East.
His object was to gain control over the African coast and the
Malabar ports, divert the export trade of India and East Africa
to the Cape of Good Hope route and establish Portuguese
monopoly over trade in the Indian Ocean. He planned
commercial supremacy based on naval supremacy and wanted
to turn the Indian Ocean into a Portuguese sea. Albuquerque,
his successor, was the greatest Portuguese viceroy in the East,
and laid the foundation for Portuguese authority in India by
conquering places like Goa, which was to serve as a fine naval
base and colony in India. At the close of the fifteenth century,
the Portuguese met with no resistance from any state along the
Malabar coast; on the contrary, those states, torn by mutual
jealoXisy, only welcomed the European power. The Pope,
Alexander VI, granted the monopoly of trade with the East^to
the Portuguese in 1493. Portugal had a clear field for nearly a
century. However, they soon had to face powerful opposition
from Holland and England.
The Dutch, a hardy race of adventurous maritime people, snatched
the commercial supremacy of the East from the Portuguese and
rose to prominence by the end of the sixteenth century. They
established their toehold in Masulipatnam (now, Machilipatnam)
in 1605 and built a fort in Pulicat in 1609. They established
factories along the Coromandel coast, Gujarat and Bengal. They
captured Nagapatnam from the Portuguese. But Dutch power
in India was largely jeopardized on European battlefields. The
wars of the Dutch with the English and the French during the
second half of the seventeenth century drained their resources
and weakened the naval strength of Holland.
THE ENGLISH AND THE FRENCH

The English and the French were the two other powers that
competed for a share of the rich trade of the Eastern seas. The
defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 gave a powerful stimulus
to the maritime enterprise of the British. Queen Elizabeth
 The Exploration and Transportation Phase 7

signed a charter on the last day of the year 1600, granting trading
rights to the British East India Company, a trading body founded
by a group of enterprising merchants of the city of London.
The French appeared on the Indian scene long after the English.
The French East India Company was formed in 1664; they
established factories at Surat in 1668 and at Masulipatnam in
1669. Pondicherry was founded in 1674 and it became the
capital of the French settlements in India. The French had
also established factories in Mahe, Karaikal, Chandranagore (now
Chandannagar) and other places. But the French could not
achieve appreciable success in commerce because of the
superior British enterprise.
SETTLERS AND COLONIZERS

Unlike the Aryans and the later Muslims, who settled in India
and made it their home, the Europeans remained only as
colonizers.
The word 'colony' in English, according to etymological
dictionaries, was borrowed from Latin and used in the sixteenth
century to mean, 'farm, settlement, landed estate etcetera.
From it were derived other forms, during the seventeenth
century, such as 'colonized', 'colonial', 'colonist' and
'colonization' with emerging European colonies all over the
world. In contemporary English, colonialism is the practice of
having or keeping colonies in a distant country and by
implication the conquest and control of other people's land
and wealth. By extension, it means the exploitation of the
dominated group by the dominating group. In political terms,
colonialism is a practice by which a powerful country controls
less powerful countries and uses their resources in order to
further its own interests, wealth and power. In that sense,
Europeans were colonizers and not settlers.
THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE ENGLISH AND THE FRENCH

The commercial rivalry between the English and the French

led them on to armed conflicts, and the two East India companies
—British and French—were also involved in the international
8 The Story of English in India

conflicts of their respective countries. But, in the Indian

subcontinent, the British East India Company's commercial
superiority and better financial position placed them in an
advantageous position—the English company was a private
corporation, vigorous and self-reliant whereas the French
company was a subordinate department of the government. The
success of the English in Bengal, which furnished the materials
of war and a firm base of operation, gave them an additional
advantage.
The French were confined to the region of Madras. The most
important cause for the success of the English was their
command of the sea. The appearance of Robert Clive in India
marked a turning point in the struggle between the English
and the French; by his daring and timely military operations, he
destroyed the French forever in India. The English victory in
the Battle of Plassey in the famous grove of Plassey in 1757
sealed the fate of the Mughal rule and, in a sense, all of India,
and laid the foundations of the British Empire in India. Clive
also defeated the Dutch, both by land and by water, and the
supremacy of the English was established.
Warren Hastings was appointed Governor of Fort William in
Calcutta in April 1772 and tried to evolve order out of chaos.
It was a new government of the Company and Warren Hastings
was appointed to restore the authority of the government. As
Lord Macaulay said, 'the only quarter in which the British lost
nothing was the quarter in which her interests had been
committed to the case of Hastings.'
Warren Hastings, the second founder of the British Empire in
India, had a genuine admiration for Indian culture in general,
and Indian philosophy and literature in particular. He was fond
of the Bhagavad Gita and the great epic, the Mahabharata, and
initiated translation of these works. He tried to stimulate the
interest of the Europeans in Indian culture. It was during the
period of his office that Sir William Jones, an Englishman who
served as a Junior on the Bench of the British Court in Calcutta,
postulated a thesis that became the basis for what came to be
 The Exploration and Transportation Phase 9

known as philology, or later, historical linguistics. Another

Englishman, Wilkins, translated the Gita, and Major Rennel,
the inventor of printing types for Persian and Bengali scripts,
authored the Bengal Atlas, Hastings was also responsible for the
founding of the Asiatic society of Bengal, which has established
a record of service in the cause of Indian history and culture. A
solid foundation was laid for British colonialism, which continued
for the next one hundred and seventy-five years.

1.1.3 The Charter

"I'll have them fly to India for gold,
Ransack the ocean for orient pearl!"
[Doctor Faustus, Li]
These are the words of Dr. Faustus in the play of that name
written by Christopher Marlowe and entered in the Stationer's
Register the same year that the East India Company (EIC)
was formed. On 31 December 1600, Queen Elizabeth signed a
Charter granting permission to a group of enterprising
merchants of the city of London to trade with India. This
trading body was formed for a specific purpose: the EIC and its
agents were only 'birds of prey and passage', as Burke described
them; gold was their watchword and their 'prey' was lodged in
India. In England they were known as 'Indian Nabobs'. The
EIC remained only 'jageerdars' under the Mughal sovereign till
1759. The plunder in Plassey gave them political and military
strength, and with the Diwani Act of 1765 (by which the
Company was to 'stand forth as Diwan and collect the revenue
in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa through their own English collector'),
the EIC became the virtual ruler of Bengal.
The violent 'shaking of the pagoda tree' and the wasteful
extravagance of the 'Indian Nabobs', who squandered their ill-
gotten wealth created a stir in England. The people questioned
whether a body of British merchants had any lawful right to
govern a foreign territory without being controlled by the British
government. It became necessary to place the doings of the
EIC under national control, since it was felt that it was making
10 The Story of English in India

huge profits in India. At the same time, the Company was forced
to borrow repeatedly from the Bank of England because it had no
financial discipline and its agents traded privately without its
knowledge. The Regulating Act was passed in 1773 and it was
the starting point of the British administration in India. The
members of the Court of Directors of the EIC were to be elected
and a Governor General of Bengal was to be the supreme authority
with a casting vote. Later, in 1784, William Pitt, the younger, as
the Prime Minister, introduced the Pitt India Bill, paving the
way for a system of double government by the Company under
the control of a minister directly responsible to Parliament. This
system lasted till 1858 when the Crown assumed the sole and
direct administration of India.
Before 1800, the EIC imparted English education only to the
children of the European employees of the Company and some
Anglo-Indians. During the early years, the Company did not
pay much attention to the education of Indians. The pathashalas
the madrassas, the Persian schools called maktabs, other
institutions teaching through Sanscrit and other Indian
languages, the village schools and 'domestic instruction' formed
]the basis of what the British termed 'indigenous education
through the vernaculars'. Only by the end of the eighteenth
century, when the EIC brought the Indian subcontinent (except
the Punjab and Sind) under their control, did they start thinking
about the education of the 'natives'. As the ruling power, the
Company thought of civilizing the 'natives'. As Lord Macaulay
later said in the House of Commons, to trade with civilized
men is infinitely more profitable than to govern savages.
Educating the natives was only a strategy and the ulterior aim
was to create a feeling of awe and respect for Europeans among
Indians, as this was essential both to the commercial interests
of the British Empire in India and England, and to the spread
of Christianity in India and the world.
Missionaries became active in the eighteenth century and their
aim was proselytization, and the means to that end were the
Indian languages and English. For example, William Carey, an
 The Exploration and Transportation Phase 11

English missionary who was a cobbler in an insignificant village

in England, brought out a Sanskrit grammar and an English
translation of the Ramayana, and started a'newspaper in Bengali
in 1818, perhaps to attract the native population.
As Reena Chatterji says in Impact of Raja Rammohan Roy on
Education in India:
The early converts to Christianity came mostly from the lowest
stratum of the Hindu society. They were generally illiterate and,
as reading the Bible was held to be essential for salvation, 'the
Missionaries were required to establish schools in order to teach
the new converts to read and write. For the same reason', they had
to start the printing press and to print the Bible in Indian languages.
They had to start vocational schools in order to provide them a
source of livelihood and also due status in society. (Chatterji, 1983)

1.1.4 The First Blueprint

The first blueprint on English education in India was prepared
in 1792 by Charles Grant, a director of the East India Company.
Charles Grant, described as the Christian Director of the EIC,
was also a member of the evangelical party known as the
Clapham Class or Sect which had on its roll such men as Zachary
Macaulay, the father of Lord Macaulay, and William Wilberforce,
a champion of the poor. They were men of religious zeal, keen
on spreading Christianity through English, known as the
'Christian tongue' in the early stages of its introduction in India.
For an Englishman of that period, acceptance of the Christian
faith meant not just the acceptance of a religion with a set of
beliefs and rituals, but the cultivation of the mind with the
knowledge of the cultural, economic and social achievements
of the community.
Charles Grant came to India in 1767 and he wrote his treatise
called Observations on the State of the Society among the Asiatic Subjects
of Great Britain, particularly with respect to Morals and the Means
of Improving it in 1792. In this text he suggested a policy of
bringing about change in the Indian society—moral, social, and
mental—through the English language, Western education and
12 The Story of English in India

Christianity. Naturally, the missionaries found some support

in Charles Grant, who came to India as an employee of the
company; he is sometimes described as the 'father of modern
education in India'. He says:
In considering the affairs of the world as under the control of the
Supreme Disposer, and those distant territories providentially put
into our hand, is it not necessary to conclude that they were given
to us, not merely that we might draw an annual profit from them,
but that we might diffuse among their inhabitants, long sunk in
darkness, vice and misery, the light and benign influence of the
truth, the blessings of well-regulated society and the comforts of
active industry? In every progressive step of this work, we shall also
serve the original design still so important to this country—the
expansion of our commerce. (Ling, 1968:351)
The evangelist in Grant equates God with the protector of
British commerce. The missionary in him equates truth with
the English language, Western education and Christianity.
Charles Grant stayed in India from 1767 to 1790 with a break
during 1771-3. In 1792, he wrote:
The true curse of darkness is the introduction of light. The Hindus
err because they are ignorant and their errors have never fairly been
laid before them. The communication of light and knowledge to
them would prove the best remedy for their children and this remedy
is proposed from a full conviction that if judiciously and patiently
applied, it would have great and happy effects upon them, effects
honourable and advantageous for us. (Syed, 11)
So, with full conviction, Charles Grant recommended:
1. The introduction of English as the medium of instruction,
in a Western system of education that included literature,
natural sciences, mechanical inventions etcetera, to remove
the superstitious beliefs prevalent among the heathens of
India
2. The adoption of English as the official language of the
Company and the Government for easy communication
between the rulers and the ruled
 The Exploration and Transportation Phase 13

Grant very clearly stated in Observations that the Christian faith,

through the medium of English, is the only remedy for all the
evils in Hindu society and for the liberation of the Hindu mind.
He states:
Wherever this knowledge would be received, idolatry, with all the
rabble of its impure deities, its monsters of wood and stone, its
false principles and corrupt practices, its delusive hopes and vain
fears, its ridiculous ceremonies and degrading superstitions, its
lying legends and fraudulent impositions would fall. The reasonable
service to the only and infinitely perfect God would be established:
love to Him, peace and goodwill towards men, would be felt as
obligatory principles. (Syed, 1895: 113-14)
The English language and the Western system of education
were only the means for a cultural and religious conquest of the
Hindus, the ultimate aim being trade and political power. The
master and the pastor were to be used as tools to bind the
Empire. So, Grant pleaded that the British Government
forcefully introduce English in India.
Charles Grant, Zachary Macaulay, William Wilberforce and
others continued to argue relentlessly in favour of English
education. Wilberforce moved the following resolution in 1793
before the British Parliament.
That it is the peculiar and bounden duty of the British legislature
to promote by all just and prudent means the interest and happiness
of the inhabitants of the British domains in India; and that for
these ends such measures ought to be adopted as may gradually
tend to their advancement in useful knowledge and to their religious
and moral improvement. (Richter, 1908: 149-50)
It had an operative part too that said:
The Court of Directors of the Company shall be empowered and
committed to nominate and send out from time to time a sufficient
number of skilled and suitable persons who shall attain the aforesaid
object by serving as school masters, missionaries, or otherwise.
(Richter, 1908: 149-50)
14 The Story of English in India

1.1.5 The Orientalist versus the Anglicist

Wilberforce's resolution was too explicit in its motives and too
clumsily worded to be accepted in toto. The House rejected
the operative part of the resolution because the British did not
want a cultural confrontation with Indians. The resolution also
went against the policy of Warren Hastings who, as Governor
during 1772-85, had been keen on respecting Indian traditions.
His main aims had been consolidation and conciliation. He
founded the Calcutta Madrassa in 1781 and the Benares
Sanskrit College in 1791, to encourage Oriental learning, both
Muslim and Hindu.
The founding of these educational institutions marks the
beginning of what is known as the Oriental School of Education
Policy in the Government of British India. Even in the Company,
one section thought that overt support of the missionary
enterprise in India would be counterproductive and it was better
to follow the policy of non-interference. On the basis of political
considerations, the Court of Directors accepted the views of
the Orientalists. The expenditure incurred by the running of
the Calcutta Madrassa and the Benares Sanskrit College was to
be borne by the Government of the Company as a matter of
obligation by way of charity and conciliation. The general feeling
of one section among the Directors of the Company was that
'the Hindus had as good a system of faith and of morals as most
people and that it would be madness to attempt their conversion
or to give any more learning or any other description of learning
than what they already possessed' (Sharp: 17). In addition,
there was also a lurking fear about the dangers of educating the
subjects in the colonies. A prominent member of the Parliament
said: 'We have lost our colonies in America by imparting our
education there; we need not do so in India too' (Mukherji,
1951: 32).
The resolution moved by Charles Grant and his friends, though
partly rejected, had one positive effect. In principle, it
recognized, for the first time, the Company and the British
 The Exploration and Transportation Phase 15

Government's obligation to the people of India in the field of

education. It partially paved the way for the 1813 Resolution:
the Charter Act that bound the government to spend one lakh
of rupees every year on Indian education was only an extension
of the 1793 Resolution.
However, the missionaries had their own strategies; the
operative part of the 1793 Resolution, seeking to send out to
India ''suitable persons to serve as school masters, missionaries, or
otherwise', though rejected, shows that the missionaries
considered education and the school the most powerful force
in religious propaganda and conversion. The missionaries
criticised the policies of the Company and the Government;
and the relationship between the Government and the
missionaries was not cordial. As Nurullah and Naik point out:
Between 1792 and 1813, the East India Company did not ordinarily
issue a permit to any missionary to work within its territories,
expelled several missionaries as soon as they became active and
tried to convert people, put every obstacle possible in the way of
the missionaries and did not give any assistance even to mission
schools. (Nurullah and Naik, 1951: 69)
But the phrase—in the 1793 Resolution—'religious and moral
improvement'—was vague, and the missionaries and the
evangelists led by Charles Grant interpreted it to their
advantage and criticized the Government for not introducing
Christian education for moral improvement. They continued
in hostility towards the Oriental learning started and supported
by Warren Hastings. The Anglicist faction, who advocated the
spread of European knowledge, literature and education and
the teaching of English, actively supported by missionaries,
had built up a formidable force through the appointment of
their supporters like Macaulay's brother-in-law Charles
Trevelyan and others. They even sought to reduce the stipends
paid to students of Sanskrit, Arabic and Persian and the
expenditure on publishing works in these languages. In short,
they vehemently opposed the practice of patronizing Oriental
learning.
16 The Story of English in India

The missionaries agitated for the dissemination of Christianity

and for permission to carry on their mission in India. They
were very upset and offended by the policy of the Company
and the Government. Observations by Charles Grant was printed
and circulated and a number of petitions were placed on the
table of the House of Commons in support of the missionaries.

1.2 The Transportation Phase (1813-30)

1.2.1 The Charter Renewal of 1813
In 1805, Charles Grant became the Chairman of the EIC; in
1807 and 1808 he was the Deputy Chairman; in 1809 he was
the Chairman again. As a result, the company's policy was
actively reviewed during 1805-9. When the Charter of the
Company came up for renewal in 1813, the following resolution
was passed:
...that it is the duty of this country to promote the interests and the
happiness of the native inhabitants of the British dominions in
India, and those measures ought to be adopted as may tend to the
introduction among them of useful knowledge aacj moral
improvement. That in furtherance of the above objects sufficient
facilities shall be afforded by law to persons desirous of going to, or
remaining in, India for the purpose of accomplishing these
benevolent designs. (Richter, 1908:150-1)
The missionaries were happy that they were free to enter India
and carry on their activities. The 1813 Resolution was an
extension of the 1793 Resolution in interpreting the phrase,
'religious and nloral improvement' in favour of the missionaries.
At the same time, the Company felt that the Government
should take the initiative in education and not give the credit
to the missionaries. Lord Minto, who was Governor General
during 1806-13 wrote in 1811:
The principal cause of the present neglected state of literature in
India is to be traced to the want of that encouragement, which was
formerly afforded to it by princes, chieftains and opulent individuals
under the native governments. Such encouragement must always
 The Exploration and Transportation Phase 17

operate as a strong incentive to study and literary exertions, but

especially in India, when the learned professions have little, if any
other, support... . It is seriously to be lamented that a nation
particularly distinguished for its love and successful cultivation of
letters in other parts of the empire should have failed to extend its
fostering care to the literature of the Hindoos, and to aid in opening
to the learned in Europe the repositories of that literature. (Nurullah
andNaik, 1951)
The Orientalists and those who were not in favour of overt
missionary activities mounted pressure and the following clause
was introduced in the Charter Act of 1813:
It shall be lawful for the Governor General in council to direct that
out of any surplus, which may remain of the rents, revenues and
profits arising from the said territorial acquisitions, after defraying
the expenses of the military, civil and commercial establishments
and paying the interest of the debt, in a manner hereinafter provided,
a sum of not less than one lakh of rupees in each year shall be set
apart and applied to the revival and improvement of literature and
encouragement of the learned natives of India and for the
introduction and promotion of knowledge of the sciences among
the inhabitants of the British territories in India. (Sharp: 22)
The supporters of this clause thought that it might be a
safeguard against the threatened deluge of missionaries
marching to India. The Company and the Government tried
to balance the two opposing forces and exercised tactical
caution. It must be noted that the 1813 resolution made no
mention of the language of education and stated that only the
surplus was to be allotted to the 'improvement of literature
and encouragement of the learned natives of India'—an
ambiguous statement. The expenditure was not mandatory; it
was just a legal sanction.
The resolution did not put an end to the Orientalist-Anglicist
controversy. The Company and the Government continued a
tactical policy of caution. Sir Francies Rawdon-Hastings,
Marquess of Hastings was the Governor General (1813-23)
and the British were preoccupied with the Gurkha War and the
18 The Story of English in India

wars with the Marathas. There was not much serious attention
paid to education during this period.
Based on the sections in the Charter Act of 1813, the Court of
Directors of the Company sent out a despatch in 1814, stating
the objectives of their educational policy. But no action was
taken till 1823, when a General Committee of Public Instruction
was constituted. The Committee consisted of ten members,
including both supporters of Western and Oriental education.
Between 1821 and 1833, the Committee gave recognition to
the Calcutta Madrassa and Benares Sanskrit College. Another.
Sanskrit college at Poona (1821), and two more Oriental Colleges
at Agra (1823), and Calcutta (1824) were also started. The
Committee also undertook the printing of Sanskrit and Arabic
books and employed Oriental scholars to translate books from
English into Indian classical languages. The Committee wanted,
to create a favourable impression among the people of India,
particularly the learned natives.

1.2.2 The Mission of the Missionaries

With the opening of the floodgates for the free entry of the
missionaries in 1813, a large number of them entered India
with a view to educating Indians and converting them to a new
language, a new culture and a new religion. The officials of the
Company and the Government indirectly encouraged them.
The officials exercised 'cover and caution' and, in a way, used
the missionaries as a surrogate force to do whatever was to be
done. T h e Company was interested in trade, and the
Government in the expansion of the Empire.
Between 1815 and 1840, a number of Christian schools and
colleges were established in different parts of India: the Baptist
Mission schools (1815), the Serampore College (1818), the
London Mission Society's Schools (1818), the Bishop's College
at Sibpur (1820), the Calcutta School Society's schools (1819),
the Jaya Narayan Ghoshal's English School at Benares (1818),
and the most important one, the General Assembly's Institution
(1830) founded by a Scottish missionary, Alexander Duff, who
 The Exploration and Transportation Phase 19

was very active in India from 1830 to 1843. He was the chief
architect of a thoroughly equipped and efficiently conducted
educational institution; he was an evangelist who understood
the key role of education in the conversion of Indians to
Christianity. He felt that education through the medium of
English was the right instrument to prepare the educated
persons in India for the right type of Christianity. Duff's
programme was to spread the message from cities to villages
through a select group receiving Christian education.
Duff and other missionaries criticized the 'godless' policy of
the Government and their efforts to impart a secular education
in India. Though the Christian missionaries were of various
shades of opinion, they were all agreed that a thousand agencies
should be at work to undermine Hinduism and a thoroughly
equipped and efficiently conducted educational system was the
most powerful instrument to spread the divine Light on every
native in India.
They argued, as John Clarke of the Serampore Mission stated
in 1852:
The natives themselves also have always been accustomed to give
a very high religious tone to secular education. In fact, among the
natives themselves religion is completely identified with education;
they go so far as to represent even the very alphabet as having been
communicated to men by Gods; and all the knowledge which the
natives possess relative to history, geography, astronomy, is given a
religious sanction.
As a result of the intensive efforts of the Christian lobby, a
great demand for English and English education was created.
Even the Committee of Public Instruction was under pressure.
Between 1824 and 1835, classes in English were started at the
Calcutta Madrassa, the Benares Sanskrit College, Delhi College,
Agra College and other institutions imparting Oriental
education. Young men were inspired by the new spirit, the
new ideas, and the new ethos. They thought this was the
Renaissance in India and everybody rushed to these English
classes with a lot of enthusiasm and earnestness. They started
20 The Story of English in India

writing poems, stories and essays in English and the newspapers

started publishing them. Some of them had acquired a command
of the English language and a familiarity with English literature
that was not found even in Europe. During 1780-95, a number
of English newspapers were started in Calcutta, Madras and
Bombay. This also encouraged Indians to write in English.

1.2.3 Indians Asked for It

The demand for English and English education gave a new twist
to the story of English in India. One could argue that English
and English education were not imposed on the natives of India
by the rulers and that the Indians themselves asked for it. The
Hindu College (1817) in Calcutta was started due to individual
initiative to impart English education to Indians. It is ironic
that Sir Edward Hyde, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
in Calcutta, found himself in a peculiar situation when a group
of citizens of Calcutta deplored the national deficiency in morals
and asked for a college offering European education and
imparting English and an English system of morals. Hyde
reports that they insisted on receiving a classical knowledge of
the English language and literature (Vishwanathan, 1989: 43).
At this stage, looking back, one can say that even great scholars
like Raja Rammohan Roy unwittingly played into the hands of
the British. The demand by some Indian scholars, like Raja
Rammohan Roy, for Western knowledge was conveniently turned
into a demand for English as the language of education, the
medium of instruction, and the dissemination of Western morals
and values. This was also used as a pretext to divert funds
allotted for supporting the Indian system of education,
educational institutions and the printing of books in Indian
languages towards English education.
Raja Rammohan Roy, who is called the father of the Indian
Renaissance, was a scholar of Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew,
Greek, English, and comparative religion. He wanted a change
in the intellectual make-up of Indians, and wanted to rejuvenate
ancient learning by injecting into it the modern knowledge
 The Exploration and Transportation Phase 21

provided by Western education. This interaction, he thought,

would modernize the Indian mind, nourish the growth of Indian
thought, and widen our vision. He felt that Vedic knowledge,
with the other rituals, customs, and empty formulations was
stagnating and that the Indians needed exposure to modern
thought. When the Committee of Public Instruction was
thinking of establishing a Sanskrit college in Calcutta,
Rammohan Roy wrote a letter to Lord Amherst in December
1823. He said:
We nowfindthat the government is establishing a Sangscrit school
under Hindu pundits to impart such knowledge as is already current
in India. This seminary (similar in character to those that existed
in Europe before the time of Lord Bacon) can only be expected to
load the minds of youth with grammatical niceties and
metaphysical distinctions of little or no practical use to the possessor
or to society. The pupils will there acquire what was known two
thousand years ago with the addition of vain and empty subtleties
since produced by speculative men, such as is already commonly
taught in parts of India... . Again no essential benefit can be
derived by the student of Meemamsa from knowing what it is that
makes the killer of a goat sinless on pronouncing certain passages
oftheVedas...
(See Appendix I for full text)
As Reena Chatterji (1983) rightly points out, Rammohan Roy
wanted a more liberal and enlightened system of education,
including mathematics, natural philosophy, chemistry, anatomy
and other useful sciences as was done in Europe, to raise the
position of India. He wanted translations and did not favour the
introduction of English as the medium of instruction on a
permanent basis. In his zeal to support the cause of utilitarian
education, Rammohan Roy was too harsh in criticizing the
Sanskrit system of education. That criticism was directed against
the orthodox Hindu pundits and their conservatism, and not
against the treasure of the Sanskrit language. Mayhew, in The
Education of India (1927), shifts the responsibility of the mischief
done by Macaulay to Rammohan Roy's shoulders and projects
him as an earlier version of Macaulay (Chatterji, 36-8).
22 The Story of English in India

Rammohan Roy's criticism of orthodox Hindu practices was

construed as the rejection of Hinduism. This attack on
Hinduism later frightened Rammohan Roy himself. Many
Christians believed that he was about to embrace Christianity.
Once, when he was introduced to Bishop Middleton, the first
Lord Bishop of Calcutta, the Bishop, who thought that
Rammohan Roy had embraced Christianity, congratulated him
on his bold steps in embracing the purer faith. Rammohan Roy,
who was shocked at this criticism of Hinduism replied, 'My
Lord, you are under a mistake. I have not laid down one
superstition to take up another.'
That incident showed Rammohan Roy's true feelings. But it
was too late. Rammohan Roy, a great scholar well versed in the
classical languages of India and Europe, with a vision of modern
India, played into the hands of the Christian missionaries and
the Anglicists; they used him in the anglicisation of India. What
Rammohan Roy wanted was reform and change, and not Western
acculturation. If Western thought and technology could coexist
with Christian superstition, it is very well possible that
modernization can peacefully coexist with Hindu superstitions.
But in colonial politics there was neither time nor scope for
seasoned reasoning and sane reflection.

1.2.4 Pulls and Pressures

Different forces were operating in the game of power politics.
In the initial stages, the European powers were fighting among
themselves to secure supremacy over the gorgeous East, and
the rivalry for colonial domination continued for about two
hundred years—till the end of the eighteenth century. Then
started the other game within the British colonizers. The
Government and the Company focused on the enhancement of
trade and profit, the establishment of their power base and the
expansion of the Empire. The missionaries had their own
agenda: conversion and the spread of Christianity. Both groups
used education, English education and Western knowledge as
powerful tools in furthering their causes; and the Orientalists
 The Exploration and Transportation Phase 23

and the Anglicists got into a serious debate over ideological

issues. Some Indians who supported the modernization of India
jumped in and were used as pawns in the power game. Thus,
various competing forces and groups, each one with some vested
interests and ulterior motives, were operating in the
subcontinent. And then came William Bentinck in 1828 and
Lord Macaulay in 1834. William Bentinck was a friend of Charles
Grant and Lord Macaulay was the son of Zachary Macaulay of
the Clapham Sect. With the arrival of Lord Bentinck, we can
say, the transportation phase was complete, and the next phase
of consolidation and expansion began.

Important Dates and Events

1498 The discovery of the sea-route to India by Vasco da Gama
1600 31 December—The East India Company was formed.
Queen Elizabeth signed the Charter.
1639 The EIC acquired Madras on lease from the Indian ruler.
1651 The EIC was permitted by the Mughal rulers to trade at
Hoogli in Bengal.
1668 The EIC acquired Bombay from Portugal. Bombay was
fortified to become the EIC's centre on the west coast of
India.
1689 In England, Parliament became supreme as a result of
the Bill of Rights.
1691 The EIC resumed its activities in Calcutta, Bombay and
Madras.
1600-1700 Till the end of the seventeenth century, the EIC was
trying to get a foothold on the Indian subcontinent. It
had to face its rivals in England, its European rivals in
India—the Portuguese, the Dutch and the French, and
the Indian rulers. Missionaries were allowed to come to
India for the benefit of Europeans stationed in India.
The EIC was subservient to the Indian rulers whose
permission they petitioned to begin and carry on trade.
They were 'petitioners' in the Mughal courts.
24 The Story of English in India

1698 The EIC built Fort William around its factory; the three
villages around that came to be known as Calcutta.
1717 The EIC secured permission to extend trade in Gujarat
and the Deccan.
1757 The Battle of Plassey. The English won the battle and
that sealed the fate of the Mughal rule in India.
1765 The EIC secured the Diwani (right to collect revenue) of
Bengal, Bihar and Orissa.
1780-95 English newspapers started during this period:
India Gazette, Calcutta Gazette, Bengal Journal, Oriental
Magazine of Calcutta Amusement, and Calcutta Chronicle (from
Calcutta); Madras Courier, Harkaru, Madras Gazette, Indian
Herald (from Madras); Bombay Herald, Courier, Bombay
Gazette (from Bombay)
1781 Calcutta Madrassa (an educational institution fpr higher
learning) founded by Warren Hastings
1784 The EIC brought under the control of the British
Parliament by the Pitt Indian Act
1791 Benares Sanskrit College established
1792 Tipu defeated by the British; the EIC became strong
in the south of India. Charles Grant published
Observations.
1793 Resolution asking the EIC to accept responsibility for
education in India partly accepted
1794 William Carey, art English missionary, started the first
school in Bengal where the medium of instruction was
Bengali.
1795 Censorship of newspapers introduced in Madras
1797 Charles Grant persuaded the EIC and the parliament in
England to impart English education to Indians.
1799 Tipu died in battle; Mysore conquered by EIC
 The Exploration and Transportation Phase 25

1800 Bengali elementary school opened at Serampore, Bengal

1813 Charter Act Renewal; education made the responsibility
of the EIC; missionaries allowed to go to India
1817 The Hindu College, Calcutta, started due to individual
initiative; imparted English education
1821 Sanskrit College, Poona
1823 Agra College, Agra. A general committee of Public
Instruction was formed. Raja Rammohan Roy wrote to
Lord Amherst.
1824 Sanskrit College, Calcutta
1826 William Bentinck arrived in India.
1829 College at Delhi (All these colleges were started to impart
Oriental education. But soon they also started English
classes to meet the demand from Indians.) Bentinck wrote
to the committee on introducing English as official
language of the Government and that of education.

Governors and Governor Generals during this

period
Robert Clive 1757-1760 (First Governorship)
1765-1767 (Second term)
Warren Hastings 1772-1785
Lord Cornwallis 1786-1793
Marquess Wellesley 1798-1805
Lord Cornwallis 1805-1806 (Second term)
LordMinto 1806-1813
The Marquess of Hastings 1813-1823
Lord Amherst 1823-1828
Lord William Bentinck 1828-1835
26 The Story of English in India

References
Chatterji, R. (1983). Impact of Raja Rammohan Roy on Education in India.
New Delhi: S. Chand and co.

Ling, T. (1968). A History of Religion: East and West. London: Macmillan.

Mukherji, S. N. (1951). AHistoryofEducation in India. Baroda.

Nurullah, S and J. P. Naik. (1962). A Student's History of Education in India

(1810-1961). Delhi: Macmillan.

Richter, J. A. (1908). A History of Mission in India. Trans. S. W. Moore.

Edinburgh and London.

Sharp, W. H. Selections from Educational Records I.

Syed, M. (1895). A History of English Education in India. Idarah-I

Adbiyat-I: Delhi.

Tulsi Ram. (1983). Trading in Language: The Story of English in India.

Delhi: GDK Publications.

Vishwanathan, G. (1989). Masks of Conquest: Literary Study and British

Rule in India. London: Faber and Faber.
 The Consolidation Phase: The
Grand Design

2.1 Renewal of the Charter

By 1830 it was becoming increasingly difficult for the Company
to run the administration with only English officials and without
the appointment of English-knowing and loyal Indians. At the
same time, the evangelists found a great supporter of their cause
in William Bentinck, who became the Governor General in 1828.
William Bentinck was a friend of Charles Grant. Bentinck wrote
a letter to the Committee of Public Instruction on the need to
make English the official language of the Government and the
language of education:
... his Lordship in Council has no hesitation in stating to your
Committee and in authorizing you to announce to all concerned in
the superintendence of your native seminaries, that it is the wish
and admitted policy of the British Government to render its own
language gradually and eventually the language of public business
throughout the country,'and that it will omit no opportunity of
giving every reasonable and practical degree of encouragement to
the extension of this project. (Edwards, 1967:114)
Earlier, in 1824, the Committee received a despatch in which
the Court of Directors of the Company had stated their aims
and objectives regarding the medium of instruction, and their
intentions in granting one lakh rupees for the revival and
improvement of literature and the encouragement of the learned
natives of India. The Despatch of 1824 made it very clear that
the provision made in the Act of 1813 was only 'to make a
favourable impression by our encouragement of their literature
upon the minds of the natives' and 'the great end should not
have been to teach Hindoo learning but useful learning'
(Sharp, 1911: 91-2).
28 The Story of English in India

They very clearly stated that 'in professing on the other hand
to establish seminaries for the purpose of teaching mere Hindoo
or mere Mohammedan literature, you bound yourself to teach a
great deal of what was frivolous, not a little of what was purely
mischievous and a small reminder indeed in which utility was
in any way concerned' (Sharp, 1911). This despatch was the
first document that clearly stated the language policy of the
Company. It was more in tune with the tone and spirit of Grant's
Observations. Its language smacked of arrogance and imperialism.
William Bentinck's letter of 1829 was only a confirmation of
the 1824 despatch.
The Court of Directors addressed a letter to the Governor
General on 29 September 1830 asking him to introduce English
as the language of public business in all its departments
(Mukherji, 1951: 354). As a result, when the Charter of the
EIC came before the Parliament for renewal in 1833, the
following clause regarding the employment policy of the
company was found:
That no native of the said territories, nor any natural born subject
of His Majesty resident therein, shall by reason of his religion,
place of birth, descent, colour, or any of them be disabled from
holding any place, office or employment under the said Company.
Lord Macaulay had taken part in the framing of the clause, and
he was very proud of it (Macaulay, 1898: 582-3).
This opened up employment opportunities in government
services to Indians with suitable qualifications. This tactical
move linked English education with Government and Company
employment.
In 1832 the Select Committee of the House of Commons was
also carefully examining the impact of the educational policy in
India. At that time, Charles Grant Jr, the eldest son of Charles
Grant, was a member of Parliament and also Chairman of the
Board of Control of the Company. His father's ideas were fresh
in his mind.
 The Consolidation Phase: The Grand Design 29

2.2 Comes Macaulay

Lord Macaulay came to India in June 1834. He was the first
member of the Governor General's Executive Council, and was
appointed President of the General Committee of Public
Instruction. There was an impasse between the factions of the
Committee—the Orientalists and the Anglicists. So far, the
Committee had pursued a policy of compromises, on the one
hand patronizing Oriental learning according to the tradition
established to Warren Hastings and Lord Minto, while
simultaneously fostering the extension of English education.
This policy of'half-measures' was becoming increasingly difficult
and impractical because of the demand for English and the
opening up of employment opportunities in government
services.
William Bentinck's accession to the Governor Generalship in
1828 altered the situation considerably. Bentinck, Macaulay,
and Charles Grant Jr made a good team. Also, Macaulay's
brother-in-law, Charles Trevelyan, became a member of the
Committee. Macaulay and Trevelyan were Bentinck's favourite
political officers. The Orientalist-Anglicist controversy was at
its climax. The Anglicist faction (those who supported
European ideas and knowledge, and English education) opposed
the practice of Oriental learning. The former faction sought to
reduce the stipends paid to students of Sanskrit, Persian and
Arabic, and the expenditure on publishing works in these
languages. On the other hand, the Orientalists (those who
favoured the Indian systems of knowledge and Indian language
and literatures) on the Committee fought this proposition and
cited the language of the clause in the Charter Act of 1813,
which stipulated that funds should be spent on the 'revival
and improvement of literature and the encouragement of the
learned natives'. They argued that the expression 'learned
natives' could mean only persons cultivating Oriental
literature—i.e. literature in Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic.
30 The Story df English in India

Both the parties agreed on one thing—the ultimate medium of

instruction for the masses of India must be the vernaculars. But
Trevylan argued that it was unclear what language was to be the
classical language in the meantime and from what source the
vernacular languages of India were to be 'enriched' and 'improved'.
According to the Anglicists, only English could be the language
in the meantime, and only from English could the vernacular
languages of India be enriched and improved. But the
Orientalists proposed the classical and literary languages of India
as the source from which the vernaculars were to be enriched.
By 1835 the quarrel had produced a deadlock within the ranks
of the Committee; the ten members were evenly divided
between the two contending factions and the Committee failed
to agree on a plan of action as required by the Government
regarding the language of instruction.
William Bentinck solved the problem by appointing Macaulay,
Law Member of the Council, President of the Committee of
Public Instruction. Macaulay had the casting vote and Bentinck
asked Macaulay for a ruling on the debated sections of the
Charter Act of 1813. This was the occasion that gave rise to
the celebrated Minute of 2 February 1835, the 'Manifesto of
English Education in India'.

2.3 Macaulay's Minute

Macaulay did not say anything new in his Minute; Charles Grant
and many others had already said whatever he did. But Macaulay
was too much of an enthusiast, and used a rhetorical style full
of superlatives in spite of the timely warning by his father,
Zachary Macaulay, against the loudness and vehemence of his
tones and his superficial gibes: 'His pronouncements are too
glib, too confident, too unqualified and sometimes are against
good taste' (Mayhew, 1928: 16-27).
Macaulay was the Secretary of the Board of Control in 1832
when Charles Grant Jr (later Lord Glenelg) was Chairman of the
 The Consolidation Phase: The Grand Design 31

Board. Macaulay, Charles Grant Jr and William Bentinck had

formed a good team. James Mill, a noted British historian, wrote
the history of British India—a three volume history—without
ever visiting India, and it was published in 1817 (James, 1911:
31). This book played a major role in introducing a particular
image of India to the British rulers of India such as Bentinck
and Macaulay. Mill, in his book, rejected every claim ever made
on behalf of Indian intellectual and cultural traditions; he
disputed and dismissed even the scientific and mathematical
works in India and their contributions. In addition, Charles
Grant Sr's Observations and the zeal of evangelism had their
own impact on the thinking of Macaulay. Macaulay had taken
an active part in the proceedings of the House of Commons on
the question of Indian administration. For Macaulay also,
education was only a prelude to proselytization and, in 1836,
soon after the acceptance of the Minute, he wrote:
No Hindu, who has received an English education, ever remains
sincerely attached to his religion. Some continue to profess it as a
matter of policy, but many profess themselves pure Deists and
some embrace Christianity. It is myfirmbelief that if our plans of
education are followed up, there will not be a single idolater among
the respectable classes in Bengal thirty years hence. And this will
be affected without any effort to proselytize; without the smallest
interference in their religious liberty; merely by the operation of
knowledge and reflection. (Mayhew, 1928:15-16)
Macaulay was a trusted soldier of an imperialist regime that
was interested in trade and power. He was loyal to his
Government. It was under those circumstances that he wrote
his famous (or infamous) Minute on Education that became
the Manifesto of English Education in India.

2.3.1 The Stated Objectives

Macaulay's Minute is very clear and unambiguous about the
goals of English education in India:
We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters
between us and the millions whom we govern—a class of persons,
32 The Story of English in India

Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in

morals, and in intellect. To that class we may leave it to redefine
the vernacular dialects in the country, to enrich those dialects with
terms of science borrowed from Western nomenclature and to render
them by degreesfitvehicles for conveying knowledge to the great
mass of the population.
Macaulay's attitude was that of a typical colonial administrator—
a ruling master. The rulers were in need of a class of English-
knowing urban 'baboos'—Western-educated bureaucrats who
would be loyal to their masters. Educating that class and allowing
them to 'educate' the masses was the British policy.
Earlier, in 1833, in the House of Commons, Macaulay spoke on
the need to admit Indians to positions in the government.
We are told that the time can never come when the natives of India
can be admitted to high civil and military office... I am far, very far,
from wishing to proceed hastily in this most delicate matter. I feel
that, for the good of India itself, the admission of natives to high
offices must be effected by slow degrees. But that, when the fullness
of time is come, when the interest of India requires the change, we
ought to refuse to make that change lest we should endanger our
own power, this is a doctrine of which I cannot think without
indignation. (Macaulay, 1898: 583)
Macaulay visualized India 'to be a dependency of England, to
be at war with our enemies, to be at peace with our allies, to be
protected by the^ English navy from maritime aggression, to#
have a portion of the English army mixed with its sepoys, since
he felt 'India cannot have a free government, but she may have
the next best thing, a firm and impartial despotism' (Macaulay,
1898: 555-6).
That was why he wanted a class of administrators to help the
British masters. But, the second part, sometimes referred to
as the 'filtration theory' (i.e., educating the classes and asking
them to educate the masses), was part of the imperial plan,
designed to carefully destroy the indigenous system of education
by neglecting it or leaving it to the classes who would be 'English
in tastes, in opinion, in morals and in intellect'. The 'colonial
 The Consolidation Phase: The Grand Design 33

educational economy' was willing to train only the 'baboos' by

funding only that layer of the society.
Macaulay argued:
It is scarcely possible to calculate the benefits that we might derive
from the diffusion of European civilization among the vast
population of the East. It would be, on the most selfish view of the
case, far better for us, that the peoples of India were well governed
and independent of us, than ill governed and subject to us; that
they were ruled by their own kings, but wearing our brand cloth,
and working with our cutlery, than that they were performing their
Salams to English collectors and English magistrates, but were too
ignorant to value or too poor to buy English manufacturers. To
trade with civilized men is definitely more profitable than to govern
savages. That would, indeed, be a doting wisdom, which, in order
that India might remain a dependency, would make it an useless
and costly dependency, which would keep a hundred millions of
men from being our customers in order that they might continue to
be our slaves. (Macaulay, 1898: 584)
After stating the objectives of colonial education, he took up
the question of the medium of education. He wrote in the
Minute:
All parties seem to be agreed on one point: that the dialects
commonly spoken among the natives of this part of India contain
neither literary nor scientific information, and are, moreover, so
poor and rude that, until they are enriched from other quarters, it
will not be easy to translate any valuable work into them.
What then shall the language be? One half of the committee
maintains that it should be the English [language]. The other half
strongly recommends the Arabic and Sanscrit. The whole question
seems to me to be, which language is the best worth knowing?
Having dismissed the Indian languages as 'poor and rude' with
neither literary nor scientific information', Macaulay planned
his strategy to resolve the Orientalist-Anglicist controversy.
This could be done only after demolishing Oriental knowledge,
languages and their literature. So, in his Minute, he makes
sweeping generalizations:
34 The Story of English in India

I have no knowledge of either Sanscrit or Arabic. But I have done

what I could to form a correct estimate of their value. I have read
translations of the most celebrated of Arabic and Sanscrit works.
I have conversed both here and at home with men distinguished by
their proficiency in Eastern languages.... I have never found one
among them who could deny that a single shelf of a good European
library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia.
The intrinsic superiority of the Western literature is, indeed, fully
admitted by those members of the Committee who support the
oriental plan of education.
All the perfumes of Arabia cannot 'sweeten' Oriental literature,
according to Macaulay!
He further adds in his own characteristic way:
It is, I believe, no exaggeration to say that all the historical
information, which has been collected from all the books written
in the Sanscrit language, is less valuable than what may be found
in the paltry abridgements used at preparatory schools in England.
In every branch of physical or moral philosophy, the relative position
of the two nations is nearly the same. How, then, stands the case?
We have to educate a people who cannot at present be educated by
means of their mother tongue. We must teach them some foreign
language. The claims of our own language it is hardly necessary to
recapitulate. It stands pre-eminent even among the languages of
the West. It abounds with works of imagination not inferior to the
noblest, which Greece has bequeathed to us Whoever knows
that language has ready access to all the vast intellectual wealth,
which all the wisest nations of the earth have created and hoarded
in the course of ninety generations. ... Nor is this all. In India,
English is the language spoken by the ruling class. It is spoken by
the higher class of natives at the seats of Government. It is likely
to become the language of commerce throughout the seas of the
East. The question now before us is simply whether, when it is in
our power to teach this language, we shall teach languages in which,
by universal confession, there are no books on any subject which
deserve to be compared to our own; whether, when we can teach
European science we shall teach systems which by universal
confession, whenever they differ from those of Europe, differ for the
worse; and whether, when we can patronize sound Philosophy and
 The Consolidation Phase: The Grand Design 35

true History, we shall countenance, at the public expense, medical

doctrines which would disgrace an English farrier, Astronomy which
would move laughter in girls at an English boarding school, History
abounding with kings thirty feet high and reigns thirty thousand years
long and Geography made up of seas of treacle and seas of butter.
Macaulay's attack on Indian systems of knowledge and culture
was vigorous and powerful. Indians would feel terribly hurt by
his uncharitable remarks about India but we must understand
that he was presenting his point of view within the colonial
framework. One section of the colonial rulers had only utter
contempt for India. They imagined that India was in the state
Europe was in during the fourth or the fifth century. Macaulay
belonged to that section; he thought India had 'all the evils of
despotism, and all the evils of anarchy, pressed at once on that
miserable race.'
So, in his Minute, he continued his tirade against India, its
language and literature, and its religion and culture:
It is said that Sanscrit and Arabic are the languages in which the
sacred books of a hundred million people are written and that they
are, on that account entitled to peculiar encouragement. Assuredly,
it is the duty of the British Government in India to be not only
tolerant, but also neutral on religious questions. But to encourage
the study of a literature admitted to be of small intrinsic value,
only because that literature includes the most serious errors on the
most important subjects is a course hardly reconcilable with reason.
We are to teach false history, false astronomy, false medicine because
we find them in company with false religion. We, abstain, I trust
shall always abstain, from giving any public encouragement to those
who are engaged in the work of converting natives to Christianity.
And while wp act thus, can we reasonably and decently bribe men
out of the revenues of the State to waste their youth in learning how
they are to purify themselves after touching an ass, or what that of
the Vedas they are to repeat, to expiate the crime of killing a goat?
Macaulay also mentioned practical matters in his Minute.
Other evidence is not wanting, if other evidence were required. A
petition was presented last year to the Committee by several
36 The .Story of English in India

ex-students of the Sanscrit College. The petitioners stated that

they had studied in the college ten or twelveyears; that they had
made themselves acquainted with Hindu literature and science;
that they had received certificates of proficiency; and what is the
fruit of this? "Not withstanding such testimonials," they say, "we
have but little prospects of bettering our conditions without the
kind assistance of your Honorable Committee, the indifference
with wKich we are generally looked upon by our countrymen leaving
no hope of encouragement and assistance from them". They
therefore beg that they may be recommended to the Governor-
General for places under the Government, not places of high dignity
or emolument, but such as may just enable them to exist. "We
want means," they say, "for a decent living, and for our progresaive
improvement, which, however, we cannot obtain without the
assistance of Government, by whom we have been educated and
maintained from childhood." They conclude by representing very
pathetically, that they are sure that it was never the intention of
Government, after behaving so liberally to them during their
education, to abandon them to destitution and neglect.

So there was a popular demand from the educated Indians and

the British government had to be sympathetic and listen to
their request.
Macaulay very carefully put the seal on Indian education;
I hold this lac of rupees to be quite at the disposal of the Governor-
General in Council for the purpose of promoting learning in India
in any way, which may be thought most admirable. I hold his
Lordship to be quite as free to direct that it shall be no longer be
employed in encouraging Arabic and Sanscrit as he is to direct that
the reward for killing tigers in Mysore shall be diminished, or that
no public money shall be expended on the chanting at the cathedral.
Regarding the printing of books in Sanskrit and Arabic, he says:
We are a Board for wasting public money, for printing books which
are of less value than the paper on which they are printed was while
it was blank, for giving artificial encouragement to absurd history,
absurd metaphysics, absurd physics, absurd theology.
 The Consolidation Phase: The Grand Design 37

He categorically asserts:
But I would strike at the root of the bad system which has hitherto
been fostered by us. I would at once stop the printing of Arabic and
Sanscrit books, I would abolish the Madrassa and the Sanscrit
College at Calcutta.
Macaulay interpreted the word 'literature' in the Charter Act
of 1813 to mean 'English Literature' and the expression 'learned
natives of India' to mean scholars who had learnt English
literature and Western science and philosophy. Since he
questioned the quality and value of oriental philosophy, sciences,
and literature, he argued the case for cutting off all the 'useless'
expenditure on them.
Finally, he threatened to resign his position as the Chairman of
the Committee if the Governor General did not agree to his
proposals in the Minute. In fact, there was no need for such a
threat. Lord William Bentinck was waiting for the Minute* it
gladdened his heart to the utmost and, without any hesitation,
the Governor General accepted the Minute on 7 March 1835.
A declaration was made the same day. The declaration read as
follows:
First: His Lordship in Council is of opinion that the great object
of the British government ought to be the promotion of European
literature and science among the natives of India; and that all the
funds appropriated for the purpose of education would be best
employed on English education alone.
Second: But it is not the intention of his Lordship to abolish any
College or School of native learning; while the native population
shall appear to be inclined to avail themselves of the advantages
which it affords, and his Lordship in Council directs that all the
existing professors and students at all institutions under the
superintendence of the Committee shall continue to receive their
stipends. But His Lordship in Council decidedly objects to the
practice, which has hitherto prevailed of supporting the students
during the period of their education. He conceives that the only
effect of such a system can be to give artificial encouragement to
branches of learning which, in the general nature of things, would
38 The Story of English in India

be superseded by more useful studies; and he directs that no stipend

shall be given to any student that may hereafter enter at any of
these institutions; and that when any professor of Oriental learning
shall vacate his situation, the Committee shall report to the
Government the number and state of the class in order that the
Government may be able to decide upon the expediency of
appointing a successor.
Third: It has come to the knowledge of the Governor-General
that a large sum has been expended by the Committee on the
printing of Oriental works; His Lordship in Council directs that no
portion of the funds shall hereafter be employed.
Fourth: His Lordship in Council directs that all the funds which
these reforms will leave at the disposal of the committee be henceforth
employed in imparting to the native population a knowledge of
English literature and science through the medium of the English
language; and His Lordship in Council requests the Committee to
submit to the government with all expedition, a plan for the
accomplishment of this purpose. (Sharp, 1911:130-1)
This declaration of reforms ended all the controversies,
indecisions, evasions, and policy of indifference to education.
Right or wrong, a decision was made.
Maculay earned blame and appreciation in equal measure. Some
said that neither India nor Arabia would ever forgive Macaulay for
the monstrosities that he perpetrated through his ignorance of
not only Indian but Asiatic culture also. His arguments reveal the
British snob at his worst and we have the menace of the colour bar
almost in sight (Mukherji, 1952: 90). Many condemned the 'evil
genius' of Macaulay. Some praised him for his famous Minute and
some thought that the colonial masters made use of his Minute as
a weapon to suit their convenience. Though he condemned Oriental
literature, religion, and knowledge, his intensions were not
dishonorable and 'it is always good to forget and forgive' (Nurullah
and Naik, 1951: 141).
Lord Macaulay returned to England 'in full vigour of life with a
fortune' that he made in India, according to his own confession
in his letter to his sister.
 The Consolidation Phase: The Grand Design 39

2.3.2 Transplantation versus Evolution for a Fair

Assessment of Macaulay
We must look at the alternatives available at the time.
Macaulay's approach to education was the transplantation
approach. As Norman Jeffares says in his Introduction to
Commonwealth Literature.
The famous Minute written by Macaulay on Indian education in
1835 was dictated by an educational, indeed, a literary aim. A
culture was to be transplanted to promote progress; so English
became the possession—as also, as anyone who has taught in India
will agree—the delight of educated Indians.
Cultural transplantation was the aim: the English language, its
literature and its religion were made central to the cultural
enterprise of the Empire and expansion of their trade. The
firm establishment of the Empire was the ultimate aim of the
Macaulayan transplantation approach. For that he systematically
debunked all Indian systems of knowledge, language and
literature; the aim and objectives of Grant, Bentinck, Macaulay
and his class were very clear, and their tools sharp and deadly.
They deliberately humiliated the natives of India with a view
to making them perpetually dependent on the British. Charles
Trevelyan did not approve of Kalidasa's Shakuntala as a text for
study in Indian schools and colleges since, according to him,
'the more popular forms of Oriental literature are marked with
greatest immorality and impurity'.
The real or hidden goals of English education were clearly
exposed by Horace Wilson, an arch foe of Macaulay and a noted
nineteenth century Sanskrit Scholar, who called Kalidasa's
Shakuntala the jewel of Indian literature. There cannot be a
more forceful statement of the colonial rule and its plan of
education.
By annihilating native literature, by sweeping away all sources of
pride and pleasure in their own mental efforts, by rendering a whole
people dependent upon a remote and unknown country for all their
ideas and for the very words in which to clothe them, we should
40 The Story of English in India

degrade their character, depress their energies arid render them

incapable of aspiring for any intellectual distinction.
The British rulers totally ignored any point of view which did
not suit their plans. The Orientalists were even prepared to
compromise and make English an optional medium along with
the classical Indian languages. But the Anglicists wanted the
English-only policy to be accepted and implemented. They
totally ignored even English scholars who respected Indian
systems of knowledge, its languages and literapure. The rulers
were deaf to the contributions and statements of their own
countrymen about India; they had with them Sir Charles
Wilkins' translation of the Gita, the tributes of William Jones
and Wilson to Sanskrit literature, Edmund Burke's tribute in
1783 to 'a people for ages civilized and cultivated; cultivated
by all the arts of polished life while we were yet in woods' and
the statement of Sir Thomas Munro, Governor of Madras (1819-
1827) about Indian civilization, that 'if civilization is to become,
an article of trade between the two countries, I am convinced
that England will gain by the import of the cargo' (Wilson, 1836).
At least some of them might have read the accounts of the
Chinese pilgrim Fa-hien, who was the earliest Buddhist pilgrim
to visit India during the Golden Age of the Guptas; the writings
of Hiuen Tsang, another Chinese pilgrim who visited India
during the seventh century; the travel records of Marco Polo
(13th Century), or the history of India Ta'rikh al-Hind written in
the eleventh century by Alberuni, an Iranian mathematician,
who came to India and studied Sanskrit and Indian texts in
mathematics, natural sciences, philosophy, religion and
literature. Alberuni wrote clearly on the invention of the
decimal system in India, and about Aryabhatta's theories on
Earth's gravity and related subjects. Several Indian works on
medicine, mathematics, science and philosophy had Arabic
renderings by the ninth century, and reached Europe. The
British rulers did not recognize any one of them because they
were interested in transplanting their culture for the benefit of
 The Consolidation Phase: The Grand Design 41

trade and political power. Political and commercial interests

were the prime motives of the British rule.
The alternative to Macaulay's transplantation approach was the
evolution approach that advocated the utilization of all existing
and indigenous resources of elementary character and their fusion
with such organizations as European experience might suggest.
This approach might have enriched education even at the
grassroots level by bridging the gap between the two cultures.
An Englishman, William Adam, who was ridiculed by the
evangelists as the 'Second Fallen Adam', became the primary
spokesman of the evolution approach. Adam's Reports,
submitted to Lord Bentinck, proposed an alternative to
Macaulay's 'filtration theory' or the 'top-down' policy and the
culture-transplantation theory in his Minute. Adam advocated
an indigenous education of a national character and not one of a
foreign character; he believed that a country's education must
be native in character and based on its own culture and
traditions. He very categorically stated in his Reports that the
traditional form and institutions presented 'the only true and
sure foundations on which any scheme of general or national
education can be established. We may deepen and extend the
foundations; we may improve, enlarge and beautify the super
structure; but these are the foundations on which the building
should be raised'. On the other hand Macaulay's plan was to
raise the super structure without the foundations. Adam
suggested a 'bottom-up' system from the roots to the top.
Therefore, he said:
On the contrary, the efficiency of every successive grade of
institution cannot be secured except by drawing instructed pupils
from the next lower grade, which, consequently by the necessity of
the case, demands prior attention. Children should not go to colleges
to learn the alphabet. To make the super structure lofty and firm,
the foundations should be broad and deep; and thus building from
the foundation, all classes of institutions and every grade of
instruction may be combined with harmonious and salutary effect.
42 The Story of English in India

To labour successfully for them, we must labour with them; and to

labour successfully with them, we must get them to labour willingly
and intelligently with us. We must make them in short, the
instruments of their own improvement. And how can this be done
but by identifying ourselves and our improvements with them and
their institutions. (Adam, 1868)
Macaulay's policy overlooked all native systems of education,
Hindu as well as Muslim, which had existed for centuries
before the British rule and continued to exist even after the
British came to India. The Macaulayan plan ignored all these
systems and transplanted the alien system. Mahatma Gandhi
stated in October 1931: 'The British administrators when
they came to India, instead of taking hold of things as they
were, began to root them out. They scratched the soil and
began to look at the root like that, and the 'beautiful tree'
perished. The village schools were not good enough for the
British administrator, and so he came out with his
programme.' (Dharampal, 1983). That was exactly what
Macaulay did.
Macaulay, as a member of the Governor General's Council,
commented on Adam's Report, saying that it was not practical
to follow the measures suggested in the Report.
I am a little inclined to doubt, however, whether we are at present
ripe for any extensive practical measure, which he recommends. I
do not see how we can either make the present teachers of elementary
knowledge more competent, or supply their place as yet with fitter
men. The evil is one which time only can remedy. Our work is to
educate the schoolmasters for the next generation. If we can raise
up a class of educated Bengalees, they will naturally, and without
any violent change, displace by degrees the present incompetent
teachers... I doubt whether we have the men, and* I am sure that we
have not the money. (Macaulay, 1868)
Macaulay was for educating the classes and Adam the masses.
Macaulay's scheme fitted very well with the imperial design
and Indian education has, even today, a huge super structure
without the proper foundations.
 The Consolidation Phase: The Grand Design 43

2.3.3 The Curriculum

The Standard fare in the 'secular' Government curriculum of
mid-nineteenth century was as follows:
Poetical selections (Goldsmith, Gray, Addison and Shakespeare),
Milton's Paradise Lost (the first four books), Pope's Iliad by Homer,
Shakespeare's Hamlet, Othello and Macbeth, Addison's Essays,
Johnson's Lives of the Poets, Goldsmith's History of England, Bacon's
Essays, and prose readers prepared by Macaulay when he was
the President of the Committee.
However, Alexander Duff, the Scottish missionary (who ran the
General Assembly Institution in Calcutta from 1830 to 1843),
and other missionaries did not approve of the 'godless education'
that the Government institutions were imparting in the name
of secular education in English. Duff's curriculum included
the-Bible, Paley's Nature Theology, Plato's ^Dialogues, Bunyan's
Pilgrim's Progress, and Milton's Paradise Lost but excluded
Addison, Johnson and Pope.
The students were expected to acquire a critical acquaintance
with the works of Bacon, Johnson, Milton and Shakespeare, a
knowledge of ancient and modern history, and of the higher branches
of mathematical science, some insight into the elements of natural
history, and the principles of moral philosophy and political
economy, together with considerable facility of composition, and
the power of writing in fluent and idiomatic language an impromptu
essay on any given subject of history, moral or political economy.
(Bose, 1896: 180-1)

2.4 The Aftermath of the Minute

English was made the official language of education in 1837.
The Government's policy w^s to establish English schools or
Anglo-vernacular schools in each district. The Anglo-vernacular
schools used the vernacular besides English. Good English
schools were given the status of colleges. There were a number
of mission schools that taught English. According to some
44 The Story of English in India

figures presented to the House of Commons in 1845, there

were 30,000 missionary schools. The lure of government
appointment attracted many young men to English medium
schools, especially those run by the Government, because there
was a feeling that those educated in government schools would
be given preference in government appointments. All funds
that were available were directed to English education only.
Lord Auckland, who followed William Bentinck in 1836 as the
Governor General, was in India till 1842. He wrote a Minute
on Macaulay's Minute.
The fact indeed is, as is to be presumed from the evidence, which
has been recorded on the subject, that knowledge of the English
language itself with a view to the business, however humble, of life
is one main object of most of the scholars. It is fortunate that in the
pursuit of such an object, they can be led on to higher studies and
ends. For more instruction of a general nature (such as our masters
now give) through the vernacular medium, it may it seems to me,
well be doubted whether even the number of pupils would seek our
schools, who now resort to them. (Nurullah and Naik, 1951:146)
The wording was clumsy compared to Macaulay's but the
intention was very clear. There was no demand for vernacular
education. Lord Auckland preferred the Macaulayan path
because he thought that the denial of English and English education
meant the denial of education.
Lord Hardinge's declaration in 1844 made the intentions of
the Government very explicit.
The Governor-General, having taken into consideration the existing
state of education in Bengal, and being of opinion that it is highly
desirable to afford it every reasonable encouragement by holding
out to those who have taken advantage of the opportunity of
instruction afforded to them, a fair prospect of employment in the
public service, and thereby not only to reward individual merit, but
to enable the state to profit as largely and as early as possible, by
the results of the measures adopted of late years for the instruction
of the people as well by the Government as by private individuals
and societies has resolved that in every possible case a preference
 The Consolidation Phase: The Grand Design 45

shall be given in the selection of candidates for public employment

to those who have been educated in the institutions thus
established, and specially to those who have distinguished
themselves therein by more than ordinary degree of merit and
attainment.
English and English education got firmly consolidated by 1850
and some sections of the people 'the Brahmins and a section of
the middle class' were very enthusiastic about learning English;
the greatest desire for English and English education was in states
like Bengal and Madras. The Hindu College, Calcutta, started
by individuals, was taken over by the Government in 1854 and
renamed Presidency College.
However,*there was considerable resistance to English as the
medium of instruction and Western modes of education. The
Macaulayan plan of education envisaged English as the language
of administration and trade with a view to creating a class of loyal
Indians who would be Indian only in blood and colour but
different in everything else and who would help the rulers in
administration and business with their competence in English.
Secondly, Macaulay's English education was only for the classes
in the urban areas and not for the masses because the masses
would be educated in the 'dialects' of the country by the classes;
under his 'filtration theory' knowledge was to percolate and reach
the larger section of the natives. He felt that neither the classical
languages of India nor the vernaculars had the resources or
competent teachers to handle the problem of education in India.
The situation in the Indian subcontinent, however, was very
different and was not conducive to the absorption of the
Macaulayan plan of education. Even a cursory survey of the
history of the Indian subcontinent shows that it is not just one
language that was used by the people but always more than
one; Sanskrit and Persian were the most prominent ones that
were used for long periods of time for various administrative
and legal functions. Secondly, in the subcontinent, printing
was not involved in education because learning was mostly
imparted through the oral mode. The concept of a printed
46 The Story of English in India

book that could be bought and read did not exist until the
Europeans brought the printing press to Indians in the sixteenth
century. The written mode offered a new patterning principle
in the education of the subcontinent. The subcontinent was
entrenched in the oral tradition; even when modern Indian
languages were committed to writing, the written mode was
used chiefly for high functions (i.e. literary), and their distinct
scripts did not lead to mass literacy. This was the environment
in which printed books in English were introduced in India.
Indian printers were faced with the additional problem of
representing Indian languages and their scripts in the written
form. Thus, there was no homogeneous field for the vernaculars
of India, an advantage that English had.
The Indian subcontinent, before the British, was mostly used
to local feudal loyalties—the small kingdoms and the rajas,
maharajas, local chieftains, nawabs and zamindars. Loyalties
depended on lineage and not on what may be called the State;
The British period brought in this new notion of the State and
the relationship between the people and the State was to be
mediated in economic and administrative terms, which were
carried out by the State through the written mode. T h e
interrelationship between the State and the written mode was
something new to the vast subcontinent. The switchover from
the oral to the written mode made the vast majority of people
'illiterate'. A vast area deeply entrenched in oral tradition and
religious practices for centuries was suddenly converted into
an 'illiterate' country by print-capitalism and English education
that equated education with literacy.
Religious traditions were also not in favour of the English
language, the Christian tongue, and Christian education. The
Muslims did not favour English education. Though English
classes were started in the Calcutta Madrassa, there were very
few students. Many Muslims protested when English was made
the official language of the Government in 1837 as it was
considered 'the devil's tongue'. They preferred their children
being educated only in the madrassas. Even orthodox Vedic
 The Consolidation Phase: The Grand Design 47

Hindus were not in favour of the alien English education and

the English language, Rural India, however, was untouched by
English education and English. T h e rulers were also not
interested in mass education. English and English education
were getting well established mostly in urban areas, and the
rest of the country was following the simple indigenous systems.
The spread of English education in urban areas is very clearly
reflected in the number of newspapers and periodicals started
during this period; some of them were owned and managed by
Indians. Of the 130 newspapers and periodicals, some important
ones were:

Name Year of establishment

Times of India, Bombay 1838
Calcutta Review 1844
Examiner, Bombay 1850
Guardian, Madras 1851

Some Indians of the period, like Michael Madhusudan Dutt

(Calcutta), C. V. Boriah (Madras), Krishna Mohan Banerji
(Calcutta) and Kashiprasad Ghose(Calcutta), are credited with
literary writing in English.
In 1853, the Charter of the EIC came up before the Parliament
for renewal; the Court of Directors wondered why there was no
loyalty towards a Government that was doing all it could in the
field of education for the benefit of the natives. Charles Wood,
later known as Lord Halfax, was then the President of Control
of the EIC. He prepared a despatch, known as the Wood's
Despatch.

2.5 Wood's Despatch

Wood's Despatch of 1854, sometimes called the Magna Carta of
English Education in India, was the first policy statement of the
48 The Story of English in India

British Government and the Company on education. The

Despatch was the result of the parliamentary investigation that
preceded the renewal of the Company's Charter in 1853. The
Directors, in a way, felt the pulse of the situation, the growing
gulf between the people and their rulers, and the feeling of
alienation among the vast masses. The despatch, to a large extent,
sought to dispel the suspicions and fears of the people and tried
to tone down the harsh imperial rhetoric of Lord Macaulay.
Wood's Despatch emphasized the following points:
1. The English language would be taught where there was a
demand for it, and that it also would be combined with a
careful attention to the study of the vernacular language of
the district. English was not to replace the native languages.
2. The subject of Christian religion would be provided out of
school hours and only if asked for voluntarily.
3. Teachers must be trained.
4. The importance of female education.
5. Introduction of grants-in-aid through the Department of
Education so that local bodies could be encouraged to take
control of education.
6. The establishment of universities
7. The government's keenness in developing Indian languages
8. Extending European knowledge throughout all classes of
people in India
The preamble to the despatch gave reasons for developing
education in India. The ruling power had a sacred obligation to
confer upon the natives the blessings, both moral and material,
which would flow from the general diffusion of 'useful
knowledge'. Furthermore, education promised to supply the
Government with natives of great intellectual fitness and moral
integrity in Civil Service positions. And, finally, it would help
to promote England's material interests in India since European
 The Consolidation Phase: The Grand Design 49

knowledge would show the natives the marvellous results of

employing capital and labour, stir them to emulate the English
in developing the vast resources of their country, guide them in
their efforts, and ultimately confer upon them all the advantages
that accompany the growth of wealth and commerce. As a
result, England would also be assured of a large supply of
articles necessary for the manufacturers and consuming public,
besides gaining an almost inexhaustible demand for the output
of British labour.
The tone of the despatch is very different from that of
Macualay's Minute. The despatch gives more convincing
arguments in an effort to make the British educational policy
more acceptable. However, in spite of the soft tone, the basic
aims of education—material interests of employment and
capital, the development«of the vast resources of India for a
larger and more certain supply of many articles necessary for
the manufacturers in England—continued to be the same. The
despatch, however, made several useful recommendations to
the government for the improvement of education'and English
education in India.
(a) One of the most important recommendations was about
English and the vernaculars.
In any general system of education, the English language should be
taught where there is a demand for it. But such instruction should
always be combined with a careful attention to the study of the
vernacular language of the district, and with such general instruction
as can be conveyed through that language. While the English
language continues to be made use of as by far the most perfect
medium for the education of those persons who have acquired a
sufficient knowledge of it to receive general instruction through it,
the vernacular languages must be employed to teach the far larger
classes, who are ignorant of, or imperfectly acquainted with English.
This can only be done effectively through the instrumentality of
masters and professors, who may, by themselves knowing English
and thus having full access to the latest improvements in knowledge
of every kind, impart to their fellow countrymen, through the
medium of their mother tongue, the information which they have
50 The Story of English in India

thus obtained. At the same time, and as the importance of the

vernacular languages becomes more appreciated, the vernacular
literatures of India will be gradually enriched by translations of
European books or by the original composition of men whose minds
have been imbued with the spirit of European advancement so
that European knowledge may gradually be placed in this manner
within the reach of all classes of the people. We look, therefore, to
the English language and the vernacular languages of India together
as the media for the diffusion of European knowledge, and it is our
desire to see them cultivated together in all schools in India of a
sufficiently high class to maintain a schoolmaster possessing the
requisite qualifications. (Aggarwal, 1984:17)
A very lofty ideal to be followed even today!
(b) Another important recommendation was about the training
of teachers.
We cannot do better than to refer you to the plan which has been
adopted in Great Britain for this subject, and which appears to us
to be capable of easy adaptation in India. It mainly consists in the
selection and stipend of pupil-teachers (awarding a small payment
to the masters of the schools in which they are employed for the
instruction out of school hours), their ultimate removal, if they
prove worthy, to normal schools; the issue to them of certificates on
the completion of their training in these normal schools; and in
securing to them a sufficient salary when they are afterwards
employed as school masters. This system should be carried out in
India, both in Government colleges and schools, and, by means of
grants-in-aid, in all institutions which are brought under
Government inspection.
(c) T h e idea of G o v e r n m e n t control and i n s p e c t i o n was
introduced through the scheme of grants-in-aid.
We have, therefore, resolved to adopt in India the system of grants-
in-aid which has been carried out in this country with very great
success; and we confidently anticipate by thus drawing support
from local resources, in addition to contribution from the State, a
far more rapid progress of education than would follow a mere
increase of expenditure by Government; while it possesses the
additional advantage of fostering a spirit of reliance upon local
 The Consolidation Phase: The Grand Design 51

exertions and combination of local purposes, which in itself is of no

mean importance to the well-being of a nation.
We look forward to the time when any general system of education
entirely provided by Government may be discontinued, with the
gradual advance of the system of grants-in-aid, and when many of
the existing Government institutions especially those of the higher
order, may be safely closed or transferred to the management of
local bodies under the control of, and aided by, the State.
The idea of aided institutions at all levels with a Department
of Education to give them financial aid and control them through
inspection was introduced by this despatch.
(d) The despatch also recommended the establishment of
universities in India.
The rapid spread of a liberal education among the natives of India
since that time, the high attainment shown by the native
candidates for Government scholarship and by native students in
private institutions, in the successes of the Medical colleges, and
the requirement of an increasing European and Anglo-Indian
population, have led us to the conclusion that the time has now
arrived for the establishment of universities in India.
The despatch stated that religious instruction, particularly the
subject of Christian religion, would be voluntary in Government
institutions. This was made clear to remove misapprehensions
from the minds of people; at the same time, Bible instruction
was allowed if the pupils asked for it of their own free will from
the masters. The despatch also recognized the importance of
the education of women in India. It pointed out that 'Our
Governor-General-in-Council has declared, in a communication
to the Government of Bengal, that the government ought to
give to the native female education in India its frank and cordial
support.' The despatch also recommended considerable increase
in expenditure for the expansion of mass education. Thus,
Wood's despatch of 1854, in a balanced and mild tone, presented
a plan for general education in India that envisaged an orderly
expansion in the field of education in India.
52 The Story of English in India

2.6 In Theory and in Practice

Wood's despatch of 1854 very carefully and clearly stated the
laudable aim of making English and the vernacular languages
the instruments for the diffusion of European knowledge. The
Directors also envisaged two types of schools, Anglo-vernacular
and vernacular, for the purpose of the diffusion of Western
knowledge. Earlier, in 1853, when the Charter Act came up for
renewal, the Civil Services were thrown open to competition
and Indians were allowed to appear for the Civil Services
Examination; English was also made the language of
administration. All these made English a commodity that was
in great demand. English and education in English had already
become a premium commodity, and were available in the
market for those who could pay for them. Vernacular education
was also there in the market for the less fortunate ones who
could not afford English education. This was the position in
1854 when the despatch, which voiced the need for mass
education, came out.
The despatch was free from the Macaulayan contempt for Indian
beliefs, customs, languages and literature. It also declared that
it was the duty of the government to educate the people. But
the ground realities were very different—one kind of education
for the classes and another kind for the masses. By the time
the policy was formulated, missionary schools, private schools,
and District Schools run by the EIC had begun to provide
English education at the school level. There was a wide gap
between English-entrenched English education at the higher
levels and the inadequate level, or complete lack of English
education at lower levels.
Three universities were started by the British in the Presidency
cities of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras in 1857, the year of the
'Great Mutiny', called the Sepoy Mutiny by the British. This
clearly shows the 'top-down' policy of the British government.
The despatch, therefore, appears to be more of a political
 The Consolidation Phase: The Grand Design 53

document than an educational one considering the gap between

theory and practice.

2.7 India: A Trial Ground

It is interesting to note that English was first offered as a
subject of study in England only in 1828, and even then it was not
offered in the two prestigious universities:—Oxford and
Cambridge—but at the newly started University College in
London that had been founded in 1826. The course offered
was not on English literature but on the English language. It
was only three years later, in 1831, that English literature was
first offered as a subject of study at King's College, London
(which later became London University). Before 1828, only
classics in Greek (the classical language of Europe) and Latin
(the language of the Church), theology 'and mathematics were
taught as subjects at Oxford and Cambridge. Oxford and
Cambridge did not allow the new subject of English literature
to be taught till the end of the nineteenth century; literature,
at that time in England, meant only the study of great books in
classical languages like Greek and Latin and not mere 'chatter
about Shelley'. English was only a vernacular. Oxford allowed
English as a subject of study only in 1894 and Cambridge in
1911, but in the three universities started in India in 1857,
English was both a medium of instruction and a subject of study
right from the beginning. British colonialism used its colonial
territories, particularly India, to devise teaching methods
(Pennycook, 1998) and testing techniques (Spolsky, 1995), as
well as to establish its literary canons (Viswanathan, 1989); all
of which were then not only exported to other colonial territories
but were imported to Britain as well.
In all fairness, it must also be stated that expecting the
government to provide a system of compulsory education for
the masses in a vast country like India would be asking for the
moon; it is something that is beyond the reach of any
government. At that time, education was not compulsory even
54 The Story of English in India

in England; education at lower levels was imparted mostly by

missionaries and philanthropic bodies, which were run through
the system of grants-in-aid. Financial considerations were very
important in taking decisions on educational matters; there was
not enough money to provide even elementary education for
all. There were no trained teachers to teach English. Therefore,
in practice, only the classes continued to get the benefits of
English education and European knowledge and, ultimately,
they replaced the colonial masters.
More and more universities were established where education
was imparted through the medium of English. Lahore University
(1869), Punjab University (1882) and Allahabad University
(1887) came into existence. The universities were only
affiliating and examining bodies on the pattern of the University
of London. The result was that English education became more
and more city-centred and university-centred—centred around
the Presidency cities Bombay, Calcutta and Madras, and other
cities like Allahabad and Lahore. A university degree became a
passport to sure employment and the school-leaving certificate
was a passport to the university. So, English medium schools
sprang up in and around the university towns. Wherever there
was a demand, there was supply.
The recommendations of Wood's Despatch remained only on
paper, invoked, in vain, from time to time, to draw attention to
the evils of elitism and the importance of mass education and
instruction in native languages. But English gradually became
the language of education, commerce, and the administration;
the vernacular languages of India ceased to have any market
value; so there was no economic motivation at all. By the end
of the century, with more and more English medium schools,
colleges and universities getting established, English had
become the 'prestige' language of India, the language of power
and money, completely replacing Persian and other Indian rivals.
At a later stage, it even became the medium of interaction for
the nationalist movement.
 The Consolidation Phase: The Grand Design 55

In spite of what the despatch said, there had been no clear

administrative policy to guide and plan educational expansion.
Recruitment for the Civil Services was not systematic; it was
done by higher officials of the EIC. The link between British
bureaucracy and English education got well established and
consolidated. On paper, Oriental education was encouraged,
but education at the lower levels suffered neglect. The urban
'minority-use' of English was fast expanding; British bureaucracy
and Indian servants of the British Government usurped the
powers of the native rulers and administrators; English, thus,
gradually took over the functions of native languages.
In addition, the expansion of the print-media also fanned the
growth of English in urban areas. The print-media was used to
publish essays—even those of school boys, the annual reports
of colleges, write-ups that dealt with the influence of English
education on Indian youth, proposals for publishing translations
of ancient Hindu texts, reviews of plays, critical literary studies
etc. This type of 'creative writing' in English was induced by
English education. Indians were proud of their competence
in English.
The introduction of railway lines and telegraph and postal
services in select areas encouraged communication in English.
The widening urban network with the new communication
facilities helped English, Western technology and trade. There
was a strong desire to learn English.
At the academic level, the old controversy between the
Orientalists and the Anglicists continued. Some experiments
were conducted in places like Bombay to show the effectiveness
of the vernacular tongue as the medium of instruction and the
use of Sanskrit and English to enrich the vernacular. This 'three-
language' formula had no takers because of the lack of demand
in the market: Sound academic principles always get
marginalised by market forces. English was the language of
business and administration; so it had to be taught and learnt;
56 The Story of English in India

the enrichment of the vernacular languages and the education

of the masses could always wait.
The figures given below will show the ground realities; the
number of educational institutions imparting education through
English continued to grow during the period after the despatch.

Year No. of schools & No. of students

Secondary Schools
1860-1 142 23,165
1870-1 3,146 2,06,300
1881-2 4,122 2,56,242
1891-2 4,872 4,73,294

Year Colleges No. of students

1860-1 17 3,182
1870-1 44 3,994
1881-2 67 6,037
1891-2 104 12,985

The political environment and market conditions were

favourable to English and the vernacular languages were losing
the battle against English.
It was in this climate that the government appointed an
Education Commission to study the impact of Wood's Despatch
on Indian education.

2.8 The Indian Education Commission of 1882

In 1858, the Crown took over from the EIC and nothing much
happened in the field of education.
On 3 February 1882, Lord Ripon appointed the first Indian
Education Commission with Sir William Hunter, Member of
 The Consolidation Phase: The Grand Design 57

the Viceroy's Executive Council, as its Chairman. This

Commission, also known as the* Hunter Commission, submitted
its report in 1884. Most of the recommendations in Wood's
Despatch were not actually implemented. For instance, the
grants-in-aid scheme in the despatch was not implemented by
the Government, and private educational institutions did not
get any help from the Government as suggested in Wood's
Despatch. Christian missionaries were managing a number of
schools and colleges and they were badly hit by the lack of
financial support from the Government. First, the missionaries
tried their best to get financial support from the government
but their efforts did not bear any fruit; so, they started an
organization in 1878 in London, known as the General Council
of Education in India, and approached the Government for
financial support. This was the immediate motive for the
appointment of the Commission. The Commission confifmed
the policy of grants-in-aid without any hesitation and gave
guidelines for the system. The Commission said that the
missionaries were showing what private effort could accomplish
and that 'they should receive all the encouragement and aid
that private effort could legitimately claim'. The Commission
stated that the missionary institutions were 'the outcome of
private effort'. It also recommended 'a periodically increasing
provision in the educational budget of each province for the
expansion of aided institutions'. Even now, aided schools and
colleges follow the pattern of grants-in-aid; this has tightened
the control of the Government over educational institutions,
which was one of the aims of the colonial Government.
The Commission did not take up the matter of university
education. It recalled the 'filtration theory' found in Macaulay's
Minute, that the English-educated elite should take upon
themselves the role of diffusing the benefits of European
education to the masses below. The Commission did not
suggest any clear-cut plan or programme on education. It
generally reiterated the ideas in Wood's Despatch. T h e
Commission said that at the lower levels, education through
the vernacular was preferable. In their enthusiasm for English,
58 The Story of English in India

many middle schools taught English as a subject too early and

switched over to it as a medium too soon because English was
the medium in many high schools and examinations were
conducted in English. The Commission did not approve of
this. It said:
Hence it becomes of the utmost importance to consider whether,
to such pupils, the use of English or of the vernacular is most
advantageous as the medium of instruction. For them, at any rate
it would appear that the employment of the vernacular is preferable.
A boy would in such a case receive a sound vernacular education
suited to his station in life and he would acquire a useful, if
elementary, knowledge of English in addition.
At the same time, the Commission, in the same report, argued:
To a boy so educated even an elementary knowledge of English is of
unquestionable value, not only by reason of mental training, which
its acquisition has involved, but also in regard to his business or
other relations with the outer world.
As a result of this ambivalent attitude, the Commission did
not propose any specific recommendation regarding the medium
of instruction. In a way, the Commission allowed the market
forces to decide this, knowing full well that English .was the
language of the Government. The Matriculation examination
was the entrance examination to the university and it was
conducted in English; middle school instruction was preliminary
to high school education; so English continued to be considered
the most important language. This continued and the Commission
did not suggest any measures to break this circle since there was
a demand for English and English education (Indian Education
Commission Report: 210-11).
But the Commission suggested an alternative. It recommended
a commercial or what is now called vocational stream—'In the
upper classes of high schools there can be two divisions: one
leading to the entrance examination of the universities, the
other of a more practical character intended to fit youths for
commercial or non-literary pursuits'—hoping that a practical
 The Consolidation Phase: The Grand Design 59

or commercial education would acquire a real and independent

market value, and suggested that while working out the scheme,
railway companies, banks and other commercial establishments
may be consulted.
It was a very useful suggestion and some provinces implemented
the scheme and accepted either of the alternative courses as
sufficient general test of fitness for public services. However,
even in these courses, English was made a compulsory subject,
and the vernacular only a second language. The alternative
course was not very popular, since most students opted for the
main stream that enabled them to qualify for the entrance
examination to a university. Thus, no viable alternative to
English was found. Thus Wood's Despatch of 1854 and the
Indian Education Commission's Report of 1883 failed to have
any impact on vernacular education in India. As Nurullah and
Naik say:
There was hardly any achievement between 1882 and 1902 on the
issue of adopting the modern Indian languages as media of
instruction at the secondary stage. The idea of developing high
school teaching through the medium of the mother tongue was
definitely abandoned, and by 1902 the teaching of English came to
be regarded as the prime object of the Secondary course. (Nurullah
and Naik, 1951:304)

Important Dates and Events

1828-35 Lord Bentinck's Governor Generalship—He voiced the
opinion that Western education should be imparted to
Indians through English.
1828-40 The Bombay Native Education society set up District
English Schools in Bombay.
1833 English introduced as a subject in the Agra college and
the Calcutta Madrassa due to the demand of some
Indians; District English Schools were set up in Delhi
and Benare$.
1835 Macaulay's Minute on Education that later became the
Manifesto of English education in India
60 The Story of English in India

1837 Missionaries began to provide a significant part of the

facilities for learning English; English became the
language of administration, and soon after that, the
language of the judiciary.
1841 A high school called 'The University' was set up in
Madras; it imparted education in English. It was turned
into a university by a Government order in 1853.
1844 Office jobs (subordinate positions in the British
bureaucracy) thrown open to Indians
1853 Charter Renewal; Civil Services were thrown open to
competition and Indians were allowed to appear for the
Civil Service Examination.
1854 Wood's Despatch, the first education policy of EIC,
expresses the need for mass education and visualizes a
system:
1. Starting universities in the Presidency cities
2. Setting up institutions to train teachers >
3. Introducing a system ofgrants-in-aid of to encourage
private enterprise.
4. Education Department as a unit to supervise and
inspect educational institution
1857 Three universities are established in Bombay, Calcutta
and Madras. The 'Great Mutiny'
1858 The Crown takes over; transfer of power from the EIC to
the Crown
1859 Lord Stanley, the first Chief Secretary of the State under
the Crown; Wood's Despatch confirmed as the official
education policy
1882-7 Universities of Punjab and Allahabad established
1882 Indian Education Commission (Hunter Commission) set
up to review the progress of education. Its report confirms
the policy found in Wood's Despatch.
 The Consolidation Phase: The Grand Design 61

1884 Lord Ripon's Self-Government Act; Municipalities,

District Boards, Taluka Boards came into being; local
self-government
1885 Indian National Congress founded
1892 Indian representation in the legislature. Dadabhai
Naoroji was elected to the British Parliament as India's
representative.

English Newspapers and Periodicals on the Increase

Name Year of Establishment

Pioneer, Lucknow 1865

Mail, Madras .1867
AmrttBazarPatrica, Calcutta 1868
Sathia Varthamani, Madurai 1870
(English-Tamil bilingual newspaper)
USI Journal, New Delhi 1870
Indian Witness, Delhi 1871
Subodh Patrika, Bombay 1873
(Marathi-English)
Bihar Herald, Patna 1874

Governor Generals and Viceroys During this Period

Lord Auckland 1836-1842
Lord Ellenborough 1842-1844
Lord Hardinge 1844-1848
Lord Dalhousie 1848-1856
Lord Canning 1856-1858 (Governor General)
1858-1862 (First Viceroy)
Lord Elgin 1862-1863
Lord Lawrence 1864-1869
62 The Story of English in India

Lord Mayo 1869-1872

LordLytton 1876-1880
LordRipon 1880-1884
LordDufferin 1884-1888
Lord Landsdowne 1888-1894
Lord Elgin 1894-1899
LordCurzon 1899-1905

References
Adam, W. Adam's Reports 1835-8.
AggarwalJ.C (1984). Landmarks in the History of Modern Indian Education.
New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House.
Bose#P.N. (1896). Hindus Civilization under British Rule. Calcutta.
Edwards, M. (1967). British India 1772-1947. London.
Jarr\es,H.R. (1911). Education andStatesmanship in India 1797-1910. London.
Macaulay,T.B. (1898). WorksXI, Albany edition. Longman.
Mayhew, A. (1928). The Education of India. London: Faber and Faber.
Mukherji, S.N. (1951). A History of Education in India. Baroda.
Nurullah, S and J.P. Naik. (1962). A Student's History of Education in India
(1810-1961). Delhi: Macmillan.
Pennycook, A. (1998). English and the Discourse of Colonialism. New
York: Routledge.
Sharp, W.H. (1911). Selections from Educational Records I.
Spolsky, B. (1995). Measured Words. Oxford.
The Indian Education Commission Report.
Tulsi Ram. (1983). Trading in Language: The Story of English in India.
Delhi: GDK Publishing.
Vishwanathan, G. (1989). Masks of Conquest: Literary Study and British
Rule in India. London: Faber and Faber.
Wilson, H. (1836). 'Education for the Natives of India'. Asiatic Journal 29:14.
 The Dissemination Phase

3.1 Then Came Lord Curzon

The Empire was expanding and India was gradually becoming
one unit. Dalhousie's 'Doctrine of Lapse' was used to annex a
number of small States that were 'misgoverned' according to
the British. States like Satara, Sambalpur, Udaipur, Jaipur, Jhansi,
Nagpur, and Oudh were annexed and confiscated. Many Indian
rulers like the Nizam of Hyderabad, the Nawab of Garnatic,
the Raja of Tanjore and others became only figureheads. By the
end of the eighteenth century, the British were able to bring
the entire subcontinent under their control. Many
administrative and social reforms were imposed to civilize the
'ignorant and apathetic' Hindus. These annexations, social
reforms, educational reforms and scientific innovations
introduced from the West had their repercussions.
On the one hand, the use of English in India brought a different
kind of awareness to the minds of urban Indians. The British
Empire was getting established more and more not only as a
territorial empire but also in the minds of men as a result of
Western education and the English language. It was the Empire
of the language through education. The establishment of
universities in cities like Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Lahore,
Allahabad and Punjab was a clear indication of this 'linguistic
and cultural empire'.
In fact there was a lurking fear back in England that the spread
of Western education and the English language among the
Indians might make them challenge the alien rule. Sir John
Malcolm, the biographer of Clive, told the Lords' Committee
in 1832 that 'our Indian subjects might desire from the general
diffusion of knowledge and the eventual abolition of castes, a
consciousness of which would naturally incline them to throw
64 The Story of English in India

off the yoke of a foreign power.' He argued, 'Our power rests

upon the general division of the great communities under the
government... . While they continue to divide in this manner
no insurrection is likely to shake the stability of our power'
{Parliamentary Papers, Vol 1, 1832). T h e British saw the
extension of knowledge as a source of danger, but at the same
time, they wanted to produce clerks and useful subordinates
to run the administration. It was from considerations of
'enlightened selfishness' that the British 'unified' India and
imparted some sort of education to the 'swarthy' heathens
of India.
The rumblings were there in the form of mutinies, the most
prominent one being the 'Sepoy Mutiny' or the 'Great Mutiny'
that happened in 1857, the same year the three universities
were started. T h e mutiny failed but English education
succeeded.
England was also facing other serious difficulties at that time,
because of her preoccupation with the Crimean War, the Chinese
wars and the Persian Wars. The British had to divert their
attention and resources there. There was a general feeling of
hostility and distance between the British and Indians on
account of the bitter memories of the mutiny.
The Crown took over the administration from the EIC in 1858
and the Government of India came under the control of the
British Sovereign. Lord Canning, who came to India as the
Governor General in 1856, was made the first Viceroy under
the new Act of 1858. No action was taken on Wood's Despatch
and nothing much was happening in the field of education, due
to political turmoil. It was only when Lord Ripon (1880-84)
came that a scheme of local self-government was introduced,
on the model of English Country Councils and Rural District
Boards. Lord Ripon was keen on introducing regulations for
'the increase and improvement of Primary and Secondary
schools'; the commission of 1882 that he appointed emphasized
the State's responsibility to encourage and finance education
 The Dissemination Phase 65

by encouraging private enterprise through grants-in-aid. But

the demand for English and English education was on the
increase; indigenous education was slipping into oblivion and
primary education was totally neglected.
The British Empire was getting more and more well-established
as a territorial empire and English and English education also
got established in the minds of men, particularly in urban areas,
as the 'English Empire'. The expansion of communication
facilities, the printing press, the railways, the post and telegraph
network, and the print media supported both the territorial
and linguistic empires. It was at that time Lord Curzon came
to India as the Viceroy.
Lord Curzon's views on education were as strong as those of
Macaulay. He convened an Education Conference at Simla in
1901. Addressing the conference, Lord Curzon said that
education in India was 'required not primarily as the instrument
of culture or the source of learning but as the key to employment,
the condition of all national advance and prosperity'
He further added:
We started by a too slavish imitation of English models, and to this
day, we have never purged ourselves of the taint— English is the
vehicle of learning and of advancement to a small minority; but for
the vast bulk it is a foreign tongue which they do not speak and
rarely hear. If the vernaculars contained no literary models, no
classics, I might not be willing to recommend them. But, we all
know that in them are enshrined famous treasures of literature.
Referring more specifically to Macaulay, Lord Curzon said:
Ever since the cold breath of Macaulay's rhetoric passed over the
field of the Indian languages and Indian text books, the elementary
education of the people in their own tongues has shrivelled and
pined.
He added emphatically, 'Everywhere it was words that were
being studied, not ideas', and that Indian education was just a
'mere shell with no kernel in it'.
66 The Story of English in India

At the same conference, he said:

The reproach has been brought against them (i.e. the colleges)
that their lecturers are not teachers, but are merely the purveyors of
a certain article to a class of purchasers, that this article happens to
be called education, and the purveyor stands not behind a counter
but behind a desk. There may be exaggeration in this description,
but there may also be a grain of truth. (Raleigh, 1906)
Curzon was blowing hot and cold in the same breath. This
championship of vernacular education was prompted mostly by
his colonial concern that English-educated people had started
revolting against the British governing class as a result of Western
ideas like liberty, equality and fraternity. So, he felt that English
education itself was elitist and dangerous. He advocated the
cause of Indian languages and vernacular education for the wrong
reasons; he took a lot of interest in drafting the resolutions of
the Simla conference that formed the Government of India's
Resolution on Education Policy (1904).
The Indian Education Commission appointed in 1882 did not
take up the matter of university education and left it
untouched. After the universities were established in India in
1857 and later, there were a number of problems connected
with their administration, and defects were noticed in the
system. Moreover, London University, which served as a model
to Indian universities, was only recognized in England in 1898,
and it became necessary for Viceroy Lord Curzon to review the
system in India with a view to tightening government control
on higher education and the provision of funds.

3.2 The Indian Universities Commission

The Indian Universities Commission was appointed in 1902,
resulting in the Indian Universities Act of 1904. The Commission
was basically appointed to draft proposals to improve the working
of universities in India, and to recommend measures to raise
the standard of university education. Unfortunately, the
commission's recommendations merely rehabilitated and
 The Dissemination Phase 67

strengthened the existing system. The Commission recommended

measures to supervise and control universities and colleges, without
recommending any measures to improve the quality of higher
education.
The Commission of 1902 made the following observations about
the state of English in the Indian educational system:
Notwithstanding the prominent position given to English
throughout the course, the results are most discouraging. Students,
after Matriculation, are found to be unable to understand lectures
in English when they join a college. In some cases, the difficulty is
said to disappear after a short time; but it appears to be the case
that many students pass through the entire University course
without acquiring anything approaching a command of the language,
and proceed to a degree without even learning to write a letter in
English correctly and idiomatically. Even those who have acquired
a considerable felicity in speaking and composition are, as we
ourselves had many occasions of observing, lamentably deficient in
pronunciation.
The Commission blamed school education for the state of affairs
in colleges and universities and suggested, as a remedy, the
improvement of English at the school level.
Unless, however, a good training in the vernacular is given in the
schools, no effort of the University will avail. At present the
subject is frequently neglected and teaching is relegated to
ill-paid and incompetent instructors. As in the case of English, so
in the case of the vernaculars, better teachers are a primary need.
Every boy should, on the completion of his school course, be
required to pass an examination severe enough to show that he
has knowledge of his own language sufficient to enable him to
express himself with ease and propriety. (The Indian Universities
Commission Report)
The Commission noted that, in most states, the study of
modern Indian languages was neglected. But it did not
recommend any remedies for the situation. The Commission
was somewhat concerned about the development of the Indian
vernaculars and not about their use. An argument about the
68 The Story of English in India

development of Indian languages was repeatedly made in its

report. Like all other reports, the content was educationally
sound. But, since the intentions were politically motivated,
implementation suffered.
Lord Curzon used the Commission's report to tighten
Government control on educational institutions. Lord Curzon
was highly bureaucratic and had utter contempt for Indians
and Indian opinion. No Indian was invited to the Simla
conference of 1901. He did.not give any representation to
Indians in policy making. He centralized even school
education under a Director-General of Education. He gave
the full support of the Government to schools, and arranged
for grants.
But the ground realities were different. Schools grew and
disappeared like mushrooms but literacy among the masses did
not improve. In all fairness, it must be said that the Government
established a number of schools to teach the vernacular but
the attempt did not meet with any success. In Bengal, one
hundred and one native language schools were established, but
they failed because the local people were unwilling to support a
'traditional' school. All these experiments to improve education
in vernacular languages failed because of the rising tide in favour
of English coming in great force, particularly from Bengal,
Bombay and Madras.

3.3 The Government of India Resolution of

1904
The Indian Universities Commission of 1902 recommended
that English not be introduced as a medium of instruction
before a child was able to understand what was being taught in
that language. Lord Curzon was very impressed by this and
the Government of India passed a resolution in 1904 called
the Government Resolution on Educational Policy. The
resolution stated:
 The Dissemination Phase 69

It is time that the commercial value which a knowledge of English

commands, and the fact that the final examinations of the high
schools are conducted in English, cause the secondary schools to be
subjected to a certain pressure to introduce prematurely both the
teaching of English as a language and its use as the medium ofinstruction-,
while for the same reasons the study of the vernacular in these
schools is liable to be thrust into the background.
The resolution strongly recommended that 'this tendency
required to be corrected in the interests of sound education.'
That marks the beginning of the revival of vernacular education.
The resolution suggested that the following steps be taken to
correct this tendency:
1. English should not be taught as a language until the learner
had received a thorough grounding in his/her first language.
2. English should not be introduced as the medium of
instruction prematurely; it could be introduced as the
medium of instruction only when the learner was able to
understand what is taught in English.
3. English should not be introduced as the medium of
instruction before the age of 13. Even then, the study of
the vernacular should continue till the end of the school
course.
All three suggestions were academically sound, and they were
implemented. The Government of India Resolution became
the policy statement of the Government. So, after 1902, a
number of schools introduced English as the medium of
instruction only around the age of thirteen. The study of the
vernacular was allowed in the initial stages and only after three
or four years of schooling in the mother tongue, was English
taught as a language.
Thus, there were schools where a child could continue in the
vernacular medium up to the age of twelve or thirteen; there
were also schools where a child could study in the vernacular
medium up to the age of eight or nine before taking up English
70 The Story of English in India

as a subject. These streams were available in addition to the

English-medium schools. Lord Curzon's policies had their effect
and Indian vernacular languages were used in a number of schools
(variously called primary, elementary, middle, upper primary,
lower secondary etcetera in different parts of the country) up
to the age of eight or nine, and in some up to twelve or thirteen.
This policy gave much-needed impetus to vernacular education.
Lord Curzon's intentions might have been otherwise but the
policy had its impact on school education. The Government
also felt that students who had been through a complete
vernacular stream were exceptionally efficient mentally. But
English was the medium of instruction at the secondary school
level and at the higher levels.

3.4 The Indian Universities Act

The recommendations of the Indian Universities Commission
and the Government of India Resolution of 1904 resulted in
the Indian Universities Act of 1904. This Act, by and large,
embodied the recommendations of the commission and the
resolution. It only dealt with administrative and procedural
matters and not with the medium of instruction, development
of vernacular education, and other academic matters.
The Act enlarged the scope of universities by introducing
teaching departments; the universities were allowed to appoint
teachers to do teaching and research. Till then, the universities
were only affiliating bodies with the duty of conducting
examinations. The Act also codified the rules and regulations
regarding the functioning of the Senates, Syndicates and other
executive bodies of the universities of Calcutta, Bombay, Madras
and fifteen other cities. In addition, the territorial jurisdiction
of each university was fixed. All this increased official control
though it created a more efficient structure. Lord Curzon's
reforms made university education develop a stereotyped pattern
with no scope for creativity; the reforms actually stifled
university education, and English continued to be the language
of higher education.
 The Dissemination Phase 71

3.5 The Growing Demand and Uniformity

Official policies apart, the demand for English and English
education was spreading like wildfire; more and more Indians
were asking for English and English education, and the rulers
were subtle enough to encourage them. The following table
shows the nature of the demand and expansion:
Data for 1901-1902

Type of Institution No. of Institutions No. of students

Arts colleges
English 140 17,048
Oriental 5 503
Professional Colleges
Law 30 2,767
Medicine 4 1,466
Engineering 5 190
Teaching 4 865
Agriculture 3 70

The expansion was highest in the Arts Colleges, which offered

subjects like English literature, History, etc. Professional
Colleges formed a negligible part of the educational system;
there were hardly any takers for Oriental education.
An important feature of the colonial educational system imposed
on India by the British was its uniformity, allowing only minor
provincial variations at the level of secondary education. The
British were interested in making India a viable administrative
unit so that they could rule the country as one unit, and university
education was used as a powerful tool towards that aim.
The principle of uniformity and control conditioned the scope
and character of collegiate education throughout the
72 The Story of English in India

subcontinent. Oriental colleges were few in number and too

weak to alter the educational scenario. Even the Indian
Education Commission (1882) had noted the uniformity in
higher education. Everywhere, European literature and science
formed the core of the curriculum and English was compulsory;
English was the medium through which all examinations were
conducted.
The chief instrument in the attainment of cultural uniformity
through education was the mechanism of the Universities Act
of 1904. The new Act gave universities a decisive authority
over the teaching in the colleges that lay within their limits;
the universities directed their curricula, virtually dictated the
tone and character of the instruction in all institutions and
examined their teaching; standards in the colleges were guided
by the universities and high schools had to follow suit in order
to prepare students for the colleges. Thus, .the universities
determined the structure and content of collegiate as well as
secondary education. Control was exercised through the
entrance examination, the gate through which all prospective
students had to pass before commencing their collegiate studies;
they were examined in English, a classical language or a
vernacular language (i.e. modern Indian language), history,
geography, mathematics, and in some areas of physical science.
Even candidates from the vernacular medium stream were
examined in English and required to answer questions from the
same stock of European knowledge and cultural immersion as
others from the English medium stream. By subjecting all
students to the same testing standards at the entrance level,
the university system tended to produce a body of Indians who
had received the same kind of intellectual discipline. Thus,
the entire system was becoming a huge machine for
manufacturing degree holders fit to be clerks; there was no
scope for creativity or original thinking. The Hunter
Commission of 1882 noted that the recipients of collegiate
instruction were not the 'crown and flower of Indian humanity'.
Many degree holders suffered from defects of personality,
 The Dissemination Phase 73

superficial learning, and pretentious self-assertion, even though

they were hardly to blame for much of this. At the same time,
a university degree served as a passport to the civil service.
It must also be said that more and more Indians were asking for
a uniform type of English education. Though there were
occasional attacks on European education and Western influence
by individuals, groups and associations, there was no sustained
effort to halt the dissemination of English and English
education. Even the Hindu cultural nationalism that found
fault with the Western system never consisted of more than a
few editors and their followers; there was practically no
opposition to cultural indoctrination through education; native
Indians were satisfied with the material benefits of the system.
The following resolution, adopted on 2 July 1870 at the Town
Hall of Calcutta, shows the wide support that English education
enjoyed among the urban population of India.
That in the deliberate judgment of this meeting, the people of
India have derived the greatest benefits—social, moral, and
intellectual—from the system of education through the medium
of the English language inaugurated by the late Lord William
Bentinck, and encouraged and supported by successive Governors-
General; and this meeting would regard as a political calamity, the
withdrawal or diminution of the assistance now afforded by the
State to English schools and colleges.
Indians wanted uniformity and financial support in the form of
grants-in-aid to all English medium institutions. With all its
shortcomings the English education system symbolized the
high promise of Western civilization to the impoverished and
caste-ridden people of India.
The impressive growth of higher education actually accelerated
the growth of secondary level English education; obviously, the
maintenance and extension of an efficient system of secondary
education became essential for the university system to function
properly. Arts colleges artd professional institutions depended
on high schools to supply the stream of candidates for the
74 The Story of English in India

university entrance examination. Hence, the secondary schools

constituted the base of the English educational pyramid, which
was crowned by the university system.
The standards of secondary schools were higher than those of
primary schools and there was no clearly defined standard that
could cover and control secondary education in all provinces.
The standards were determined by the Matriculation standards
of the universities, since those were the pre-requisite to a course
at the college; the lower limit was not determined. Primary
education had no such content or structure.

3.6 English as a Unifying Agency

The uniformity brought about by English education promoted
unity, as an unexpected by-product, within the ranks of the
educated class. When Indians were dependent on the vernacular
of their particular region, there was not much scope for the
interchange of ideas even between the educated groups from
different parts of the country. Earlier, an educated Marathi or
Gujarati from Bombay, for instance, as soon as he stepped beyond
his region found himself a perfect stranger, unable to speak or
understand the language of another region like Bengal or Madras.
But English education and the English language produced a
binding value and a common medium of intercourse. The
common language and the print media assisted the growth of
unity of thought among the members of the widely-scattered
English-educated class. The English language was, in a way,
beginning to become the lingua franca of India, and the educated
class started appreciating the value of the unification
as well.
The actual size of the educated class at the turn of the century
is a matter of guesswork; it was very difficult to determine
the actual size of the English-educated class as accurate
statistics of even educational institutions were not recorded.
The Hartog Committee (1928) found that there were almost
a hundred arts and professional colleges in which 9000 students
 The Dissemination Phase 75

were enrolled; according to official estimates, 486 secondary

and middle schools had an enrolment of more than 60,000
students.
But the size of the English-educated class, who had been
instructed in English literature, science, the history of Eurdpe,
and Western philosophy was very limited. According to the
census of 1881, British India had about 198.5 million
inhabitants; this means that proportion of children attending
secondary and middle schools out of the entire population was
1: 3,300, while the proportion of students in the arts and
professional colleges was only 1: 22,000 of the population. Thus
even about sixty or seventy years after the initial steps to
introduce English education and European learning, both were
limited to a tiny fraction of India's population. This fraction
was steadily growing, but even now it is only an insignificant
proportion of the vast population of India.
At the same time, the religious and racial composition of the
educated class was heavily weighted in favour of the Hindus,
and the Muslims formed but a small and disproportionate
minority. An appendix to the report of the Education
Commission quoted from a representation given by a Muslim:
I think it is the neglect of English education, and this neglect is the
consequence of their prejudices—they used to show hatred towards
English education, they did not make themselves qualified, they
ever supposed that English education would greatly demoralize their
character. This false notion, although greatly removed either by the
pressure of time or change of their opinions, is still hovering over the
minds of some country Mohammedans. ... The Mohammedans of
India have lifted their hands against themselves, and they have
become the cause of jeopardizing their own interest neglecting at
the beginning the study of the English language.
The Muslims looked upon English education with contempt
and aversion, and even those who managed to get into English
education found themselves left behind by the Hindus. While
the Hindu was content with learning his vernacular and English,
adding Sanskrit for religious purposes when required to do so,
76 The Story of English in India

Muslims could not get on without the languages handed over

to them by their religion and race. Persian was to them what
Greek had once been in Europe, and Arabic took the place of
Latin. So they were at a disadvantage in their habits, mental
structure, and linguistic heritage.
The result was that only a microscopic section of the population
knew English, and they were entering the administration.
In addition to the unity forged by English and English
education, the English-educated class came into close contact
with the main currents of the English and European civilizations.
Newspapers, magazines, books and other publications in English
from England found increasing favour with the Indian public;
Indians started taking a lively interest in everything relating to
England and Europe; they visited England for purposes of
education and business or simply out of curiosity. Many young
graduates, who received degrees in Bombay, Calcutta, Madras
and other cities, went to England in order to complete their
education at one of the British universities or at the Inns of
Court in London. Indians aspiring to positions in the Indian
Civil Service (ICS) also went to England to prepare themselves
for the ICS Examination.

3.7 Unification and Destruction

On the one hand, English and English education became a
unifying factor; on the other hand, they had a destructive effect
on traditional Indian values and occupations. The Hindu
intellect had been inclined to support the religious and cultural
fabric created over the centuries; but English education brought
the Indian youth in contact with a body of knowledge that
openly questioned many traditional faiths and values; European
learning and English education brought about a critical temper.
This conflict created social tensions and some felt that English
education was the source of all our woes, while some others
thought that it was the fountainhead of all our development,
prosperity and happiness.
 The Dissemination Phase 77

The following letter written by Doorga Mohan Doss, a Bengali,

in The Statesman in the year 1878, makes interesting reading.
Europe-Returned Hindoos

To,
The Editor.
Sir,
It is well known that at the present moment the position of the
native gentlemen who have visited Europe, as regards their families
and orthodox Hindu relations, is anomalous and unsatisfactory.
On the one hand, the orthodox Hindus, however they wish to do so,
cannot receive their 'Europe-returned' relatives into their houses,
until the young men have performed the usual rites and ceremonies
of being purified. On the other, the young men consider it infra dig
and hard to be called upon to perform outrageous ceremonies when
they assert that, in visiting Europe for education and improvement,
they have not discarded the faith of their fathers. The consequence
is that there is an estrangement between father and son, between
brother and brother, between uncle and nephew. To bridge over the
gulf, which is gradually widening, between the young men and
their relatives, and to place the former in their legitimate positions
among their countrymen and their relatives, some of the leading
men of the orthodox native community, who are well known for
their enlightenment, patriotism and sympathy for the progress and
well-being of their country, and who are alive to the necessity of
allowing an opportunity to those native gentlemen who have
returned from Europe to be taken back into the bosom of their
families, have placed themselves in communication with some of
the principal pundits and adhyapaks of Calcutta, in order to obtain
from them, some authority from the Shastras, some vyavstha, which
will enable both parties to come to an understanding on the vexed
point without infringing caste rules or violating the provisions of
the Shastras...
Doorga Mohan Doss
Such conflicts also had the effect, of producing s e n t i m e n t s
of nationalism among educated Indians; in schools, colleges,
78 The Story of English in India

and universities students read and absorbed the principles of

freedom, liberty and fraternity that run through every line of
English literature. In 1878, Surendranath Banerjee, a Bengali
intellectual, said:
English education has uplifted all who have come under its influence
to a common platform of thoughts, feelings and aspirations.
Educated Indians whether of Bengal, Madras, Bombay, or the North
Western Provinces are brought up under the same intellectual moral
and political influences. Kindred hopes, feelings and ideas are thus
generated. The educated class- of India is thus brought nearer
together.
The seeds of nationalism were sown by European knowledge
and English education; the English language brought educated
Indians together and they found a common language in which
to express their nationalistic sentiments. However, English
education proved to be a double-edged sword. On the one hand,
it created a new awareness and helped the unity of the educated
people; on the other hand, it destroyed the traditional
occupations in the Indian agrarian system.
The generality of the type of education imparted to the Indian
students under the university system tended to restrict their
options to either the government service or something similar.
Consequently the administrative, legal and judicial professions
were getting overcrowded, while other professions related to
research in chemistry or botany and other practical subjects
relating to agriculture and indystry were neglected. The stress
placed on general studies to produce clerks and junior
administrative staff at the expense of technical and industrial
training ruined vocational education and research; even skilled
artisans from the country tried to become clerks in a government
office. The traditional occupations of their fathers ceased to
be remunerative as a consequence of the humanistic education
under the British rule.
Agriculture held little appeal, while manufacturing and
commerce were closed for lack of skill, dearth of capital and
the inequality of the terms on which Indians had to compete
 The Dissemination Phase 79

with the British. A career in politics was not open to Indians.

What else could be done except to qualify oneself for a clerical
position in a government office and be one of the interpreters
between the rulers and the ruled? The Act of 1833 opened the
doors of the Civil Service to Indians and the demand for
subordinate posts in the government service increased.
Government service became the most desirable occupation and
a mark of status in India among the educated class.
Foreign acculturation was implicit in the whole educational
system. Educated Indians exhibited surprising prowess in
mastering English literature.
Sir Charles Trevelyan observed: A young Hindu who has made
the most of his time at college will write by the hour a somewhat
florid and stilted English with perfect ease and accuracy, and
will read, enjoy, and criticize any of our authors, from Chaucer
down to Robert Browning and Carlyle.' Most students had
read Gibbon, Shakespeare and Milton, knew Shelley almost by
heart and had a good knowledge of Keats, Byron, Dr. Johnson,
Longfellow and the Lake poets then so popular. They had read
all of Scott, Dickens and Thackeray, and possessed a fair idea of
the history of European civilization. A Bengali gentleman wrote,
'If you happen to be travelling in a railway carriage in India, you
will find scores of Bengali gentlemen reading English books as a
matter of recreation, and some perusing The Times newspaper... \
They were accustomed to carry on conversation in English and
felt at home in English. Even the British found no difficulty in
communicating with the gentlemen and ladies of India. Some
Englishmen found 'cultivated' natives in the principal towns
of India, who spoke with an elegance and eloquence that few
could surpass. Thus, English education was producing
'gentlemen-clerks' of the 'most obedient' type in India.
Educated natives had not taken part in the 'Sepoy Mutiny' of
1857 and remained 'faithful and loyal' to the British rulers, but
the situation had changed by the end of the century. The
English-educated Indians were becoming aware of the destruction
of their country, its agriculture, trade and village industries and
80 The Story of English in India

how the rulers were plundering their country and exploiting them.
They began to think and agitate—influenced by Western
education.
The Indian National Congress was formed in 1885, and in 1892
Dadabhai Naoroji was elected to the British Parliament as India's
representative.
These and other 'million mutinies' were brewing in several parts
of the country. That was the time when the English educational
system was, though inadvertently, forging the unification of
the Indian subcontinent and bringing educated Indians together
through a common language, English. All differences of race
and religion, and rivalry are gradually sinking before this common
cause,' wrote Dadabhai Naoroji in 1882; he declared, 'Hindus,
Mohammedans and Parsees are alike asking whether the English
rule is to be a blessing or a curse', and added, 'This is no longer
a secret, or a state of things not quite open to those of our
rulers who would see.' The use of a common language helped
the native intelligentsia to exchange ideas with comparative
ease, and reinforced the forging of unity within their ranks.
One can even say that what a common religion was unable to
do, was, in a way, accomplished through English education, the
English language, the English press, the communication and
transport network, and a material culture, which the British
government introduced to 'enlighten' the natives.

3.8 The Government of India Resolution of

1913
Gopala Krishna Gokhale (1866-1815) was a patriot and a
staunch advocate of compulsory primary education in India; he
was a professor and the Principal of Ferguson College, Poona,
and President of the Indian National Congress in 1905. He
founded the Servants of India Society. As a nationalist and
educationalist, he made heroic efforts to make the government
accept the principle of compulsory primary education. He
 The Dissemination Phase 81

introduced a bill in the Imperial Legislative Council in 1911,

but the bill, as expected, was rejected. However, the
Government could not ignore the popular demand for mass
education. The seeds sown by Gokhale came up for harvest in
the form of a Government of India Resolution on Educational
Policy in 1913. Through this resolution primary education in
India got some recognition and the Government promised to
make funds available for primary level education. It
recommended the starting of primary schools at proper places
and teacher training programmes for teachers of primary schools
during vacations. A number of recommendations regarding the
improvement of the curriculum and the mode of examination
at all levels were made. The resolution also provided for the
expansion of university education and recommended the starting
of fifteen more universities. The existence of 5 universities
and 185 colleges was considered insufficient; as a result the
number of universities increased to nineteen by 1946-47; and
the number of colleges to 231 in 1921 and 385 in 1939.
The 1913 resolution was silent on English as a language or as
the medium of instruction. The question of introducing Indian
vernaculars as the media of instruction at the secondary stage
arose before the Imperial Legislative Council in 1915. Pundit
Madan Mohan Malaviya suggested that a committee be
appointed to study the problem in detail, but the proposal was
oppos6d and dropped, not on the basis of sound educational
policy or educational psychology but on the basis of educational
economy.
The usual arguments given were:
1. Suitable textbooks were not available in the Indian
languages; there was no technical vocabulary in subjects
like science, mathematics etcetera in the vernaculars.
2. There were no suitable teachers for teaching technical
subjects in the vernaculars.
3. There was no demand for vernacular education.
82 The Story of English in India

4. There was not enough money; it would be very expensive

to introduce Indian languages as the media of instruction.
5. The exposure to English would be reduced.
So, there was no change in the policy of the government, and
English continued to be the medium of instruction and
examination in most secondary schools and in colleges.
The government of India convened a conference of the Directors
of Public Instruction at Delhi in January 1917, and a meeting
of the representatives of local government at Simla in August
1917. Both the conferences considered the question of
introducing the vernaculars as the media of instruction at the
high school level; it was ultimately decided by the majority of
the delegates that the study of English as a language should be
introduced early and that English should be adopted gradually
as the medium of instruction in the highest two, three or four
classes of the high school. However, it was felt by many that
the students must have the option of answering the examination
at the end of the high school course in English or in the
vernacular in all subjects except English. But there was no
unanimous agreement on anyone of the issues raised. So English
continued to be the medium of instruction as well as
examinations.

3.9 Calcutta University Commission (1917-19)

As recommended by the Government of India Resolution of
1913, a commission was appointed to study the problems of
Calcutta University, but the problems studied were more or
less common to all Indian universities. The Chairman was Dr
M. E. Sadler, so the commission is also known as the Sadler
Commission. Like all other commissions, the Calcutta
University Commission (CUC) also stressed the importance
of the mother tongue in education and, at the same time,
reiterated the principle of educational economy.
 The Dissemination Phase 83

The CUC boldly pointed out the mismatch between the

intentions of the government and the implementation regarding
mother-tongue education and the development of the vernacular
languages of India. The CUC said:
In spite of emphasis laid by government ever since the time of
Macaulay upon the importance of serious study and systematic
development of the vernaculars, the study of the mother tongue
has been gravely neglected alike in the schools, in the colleges, and
in the university; the demand of vernacular knowledge made upon
the students being of the most inadequate and perfunctory character.
The results of this have been unhappy, since it has involved a
neglect of any proper development of the student's natural medium
of thought. (Report V)
The Commission pointed out that rigorous training in the
mother tongue was not only essential for the training of the
mind, but a necessary preliminary to the study of English as
well; it also said that the training of the mind was very essential
to a proper knowledge of English. In the Commission's point
of view the mother tongue and English are only complementary
to each other and that they are not rivals.
We regard a severe training in the use of the mother tongue not as a
dangerous rival to training in English, but as a necessary preliminary
to such training. It may be that by postponing the use of the
English medium the supply of ready-made English phrases will
come a little later; but, when it comes, it will come to boys better
able to understand and to use them. If we are to make a choice
between a better education and more English words then we prefer
education to mere vocabulary. (Report V)
T h e CUC emphasized mother-tongue education as a
preliminary to the effective use of English:
The use of the mother-tongue in "India as an instrument of mental
training has long been neglected in the school system. The neglect
is, in part, we believe, due to the premature introduction of English
as the chief medium. There is much evidence in support of Sir
Harcourt Butler's view that the boys who are taught through the
medium of the vernacular until the highest stages of the high schools
84 The Story of English in India

are reached show markedly greater intelligence than those whose

earlier education has been more largely conducted through the
medium of English. The premature use of a foreign, and half
understood, medium in teaching the ordinary subjects of the school
curriculum tends to produce intellectual muddle, which is
concealed more or less at the matriculation test by remarkable
feats of memorization, but made plain where the new stage of the
university is reached. But even for those boys who are trained in the
vernacular medium, full use is not made of the mother-tongue as
an instrument of mind-training. (Report V: 29-30)
The Commission very clearly and unambiguously stated that
there was something unsound in a system of education that
left a young man, at the conclusion of his course, unable to
speak or write his own mother tongue fluently and correctly. It
argued that 'no young man in England would be considered to
have received a sound and good education unless he possessed
a mastery over his own vernacular, had learnt to avoid grammatical
errors and had acquired a taste for the niceties of the idioms of
his mother tongue' (Report V: 59-60).
The commission pointed out that an English student in a
foreign university could take down notes of lectures given in
French or German in his own language, English. This was not
possible for an average student in India. So, the Commission
strongly condemned the excessive use of English as the
medium of instruction in secondary schools, to the detriment
both of the pupil's education and of the rational use of both
media. It said:
We think it would probably be desirable as a rule to use the
vernacular as thp medium throughout the secondary schools for all
subjects other than English and Mathematics The candidates,
except in English and in Mathematics, should have the option of
writing their answers either in English or the vernacular. (Report V:
29-34)
The Commission recommended that Intermediate classes be
separated from universities and the stage of admission to a
university be Intermediate and not matriculation. It felt that
 The Dissemination Phase 85

the Intermediate stage should be a terminal as well as a

preliminary stage for entrance to a university, and that English
should be the medium of instruction as well as examination at
the Intermediate level. The vernacular was to be studied as a
subject, and Muslims could study Urdu, optionally. The CUC
recommended that 'English should be used as the medium in
the university for all subjects except such languages as Sanskrit,
Pali and the Vernacular itself,' it also recommended a curriculum
spreading over three years for the degree of B.A.
The GUC was strongly in favour of bilingual education. It
pointed out:
It suited that the policy laid down in the despatch was enunciated
in perfectly unambiguous terms. That policy is to make English
and the Indian vernacular languages co-ordinate factors in working
out in India a harmonious combination of Eastern and Western
civilization. It is a matter for surprise that notwithstanding the
generous policy boldly outlined by the Court of Directors; the claims
of the vernaculars have not been adequately recognized. Indeed, in
the University of Calcutta, where successful attempts have been
made only in recent years to encourage the study of vernaculars,
their claims have received what cannot but be deemed reluctant
recognition. (Report V: 59-60)
The CUC made the following academically sound
recommendations:
1. The vernacular should be used in general throughout the
high school, except for the teaching of English and
Mathematics, which during the four years of the course,
should be conducted in English.
2. At the high school examination (corresponding to the
matriculation) candidates should be permitted to answer
either in the vernacular or in English, except in the subjects
of English and of Mathematics in which English should be
compulsory.
3. The medium of instruction and examination in the
Intermediate colleges and in the University should be
86 The Story of English in India

English (except in dealing with the vernacular and classical

languages).
4. Phonetic methods should be employed in the teaching of
spoken English and there should be a viva voce test in
English both at the Intermediate colleges and at the
University examination in that subject.
5. In the University, a distinction should be made between
the teaching of English for practical and for literary purposes;
teaching of both kinds should be available for all students;
but a uniform course in English literature should not be a
compulsory subject for all students in the faculty of Arts.
6. The scientific study of the vernacular should be encouraged
in the University. (Report V: 344-5)
The CUC made academically sound and psychologically valid
recommendations, but the principle of educational economy
negated all that. In addition, there were also political and
cultural reasons that favoured English and English education.
The relative importance of English and of Indian languages was
not just academic; it was mixed up with religious, political,
cultural, economic and other practical considerations. The CUC
said that the issue of the medium of instruction:
.. .raises questions of the welfare of the different communities within
the province, of patriotism, and of high politics, beside which the
questions of educational psychology and of the linguistic capacities
of the vernaculars, though factors, fade in intensity in the eyes of not
a few of our witnesses in comparison with those other factors; and
many of the three hundred or so replies which we have received
reflect in their warmth of expression the deep interest taken by the
educated public of Bengal in this matter.... (Report II: 272)
The Muslims in Bengal opposed the introduction of Bengali as
the medium of instruction; they argued that Mohammedan boys
who studied Urdu, Persian and Arabic in place of Sanskrit would
not be in a position to follow the lectures in Bengali. Hindu
boys with a knowledge of a sort of Sanskritized Bengali with
Sanskritic ideas and Hindu myths would be at an advantage
 The Dissemination Phase 87

and Muslim boys would not only suffer in competition but also
lose their Muslim identity. The CUC Report quoted the
complaint of a Muslim teacher that the vernacular system, by
compelling all Muslim boys to learn Bengali, mostly under Hindu
teachers, had so greatly changed their ideas, manners and
customs that about fifty percent of the Muslim boys in
secondary schools believed in the transmigration of souls. So,
Muslims strongly felt that English should be the sole medium
of instruction from class V onwards.
Sanskritized Bengali was the vernacular of the Hindus and was
spoken in West Bengal; but the Bengalis of East Bengal spoke a
Bengali which consisted of a large number of words from Urdu,
Arabic and Persian. Hindu Bengalis and Muslim Bengalis did
not have a common vernacular. Though Muslims did not favour
English, the devil's tongue, and English education, they did
not like Indian vernaculars and Indian languages as the medium
of instruction since that would teach Hindu values and give
the Hindu boys an advantage in competitive examinations and
in government service. This deep difference in perception
helped the British to 'divide and rule' even in the field of
education. The English language divided the country at some
levels and united it at some other levels. Though the CUC
report favoured Indian vernaculars, English became the medium
of instruction because it gave a similar disadvantage to all
sections of society. The rivalry among the small kingdoms and
chieftains gave the British a political advantage. Similarly, the
rivalry among the various linguistic groups gave the English the
linguistic advantage.
The situation in the rest of the country was more or less similar
to the situation in Bengal. India, being a multilingual country,
could not think of any one language as a rival to English. The
various linguistic groups in India were suspicious of each other.
They were even prepared to accept English rather than give an
advantage to another Indian language. In addition, there were
problems connected with multilingualism; in multilingual areas,
it was not possible to provide different vernacular media for
88 The Story of English in India

financial reasons. Secondly, even in one class, there were

students with different mother tongues and it was not possible
to teach them in different languages. Moreover, the lack of
trained teachers to teach scientific subjects in Indian languages,
scientific terminology in Indian languages and suitable teaching
materials were the practical difficulties in the use of Indian
languages as the media of instruction. More importantly, the
university system used only English as the medium of
instruction and the matriculation examination and the
Intermediate course were regarded only as preparation for
university and not as a self-contained and terminal programme.
The university qualification was a passport to government
service. Knowledge of English was essential for any public
employment; the entire system of English education was aimed
at clerical and sedentary work and not inclined towards technical
or industrial pursuits.
The auxiliary committee of the CUC pointed out this problem:
There can be little doubt that one of the main attractions of the
universities and colleges to men who have no taste for academic
studies and insufficient qualifications for pursuing them, is the
insistence on a university degree by the Government and other
employers as a passport to service. If the Government were to
abandon that requirement for all appointments for which it is not
readily needed, the pressure on the universities and colleges would
probably be lessened.
In spite of all the problems mentioned above, the CUC Report
had some impact on education. Between 1921 and 1937, quite
a few provinces introduced modern Indian languages as the media
of instruction and/or examination at the high school stage;
Bombay, Bengal, Madras, Central Provinces and U.P introduced
the mother tongue of the learners or the Indian language
commonly used in the area as the medium of instruction in
teaching subjects like history and geography, but, in practice,
the instruction was given in a mixture of English and the mother
tongue or the regional language. However, in the majority of
the schools English continued to be used as the medium of
 The Dissemination Phase 89

instruction for two to four years at the secondary stage and as a

subject for four to five years at the lower secondary/middle stage.

3.10 The Swadeshi Movement

A revolt against foreign rule was brewing on the national scene
as a result of the awareness created by ideas found in Western
education. The Indian National Congress was founded in 1885
as a political force. The Arya Samaj was founded in 1875 by
Swami Dayananda Saraswati to represent the revolt of Indian
thought against the invasion of Western ideas. Many other
organizations like the Brahmo Samaj (under the leadership of
Keshab Chandra Sen), Sadharana Brahma Samaj, and the
Prarthana Samaj were active in Bengal, attempting to create a
new vision of India. The warrior prophet of India, Swami
Vivekananda, appeared in Chicago at the inaugural meeting of
the Parliament of Religions in September 1893, addressed the
sisters and brothers of America in English and declared that he
was 'proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the
persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of
the earth' and that 'if the Hindu fanatic burns himself on the
fire, he never lights the fire of Inquisition.' (Works: 3-18)
All this created a new awareness in the field of education. The
'Swadeshi Movement', a product of this awareness, advocated
the growth of the vernaculars as the medium of education; a
demand for 'Swadeshi education' also favoured the imparting of
education through the medium of the vernaculars, English being
a compulsory subject. The National Council of Education was
organized in March 1906; though it was registered in Bengal, it
spread to other parts of the country soon.
Mahatma Gandhi appeared on the scene and declared: 'I
therefore regard it as a sin against the mother-land to inflict
upon her children a tongue other than their mother's for their
development.' He was not against English; he favoured it for
international communication. That was why he declared:
90 The Story of English in India

I do not want my house to be walled in all sides and my windows to be

stuffed. I want the cultures of all lands to be blown about my house as
freely as possible. But I refuse to be. blown off my feet by any. (Narayan,
1962: 18)
A resolution passed at the Nagpur Congress in 1920 advised
the 'gradual withdrawal of children from schools and colleges
owned, aided or controlled by government, and in place of such
schools and colleges, the establishment of national schools and
colleges in the various provinces'. In the course of less than
four months, the National Muslim University of Aligarh, the
Gujarat Vidyapith, Bihar Vidyapith, the Kashi Vidyapith, the
Bengal National University, the Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapith,
Quami Vidyapith in Lahore, and a large number of national
schools, with thousands of students on the rolls were started in
various parts of the country. This gave great impetus to the
growth of Indian languages and 'Swadeshi education'. The
National Education Movement emphasized the following:
1. Indian control of education
2. The teaching of the love of the motherland
3. No imit&tion of the West
A number of leaders like Dr. Annie Besant were involved in this
movement; subjects like Indian literatures, Indian history, Indian
achievements in science, in art, in medicine, in commerce, in
astronomy, etcetera were taught. National education was
controlled by Indians, shaped by Indians, conducted by Indians,
to uphold Indian values and ideals.
At the same time, the National Education Movement also used
English as a language of transaction because, by then, English
had become an 'imposed national necessity'. English had
assumed an inter-regional character and it was also used as the
language of negotiation with the British rulers.
 The Dissemination Phase 91

3.11 The Two World Wars

There were also other forces affecting the educational scene in
India and the world. At the beginning of the twentieth century
the balance of power in Europe was no longer stable. From 1870,
Germany had rapidly grown in military and industrial importance
and her imperial ambitions were regarded as menacing by other
imperialist powers like Britain. The Germans were aspiring to
build their empire and they wanted to establish colonies all
over the world. This resulted in the two world wars—the First
World War (1914-18) and the Second World War (1939-45).
The wars had their effects not only on the global economy but
also on the linguistic scene. The English language became a
global phenomer^on. English-speaking soldiers were all over
the world, and, as a result of the global interaction, a number of
new varieties of English came into being. The American variety
was heard in different parts of the world and it competed with
the British variety for recognition. In India, a number of local
varieties like Cantonment English, Butler English, Bearer
English and Bazaar English were heard as a result of the
interaction with the armed forces, particularly in the military-
occupied areas. In the course of the interaction, Indians
borrowed English words from the soldiers' usage and the latter
borrowed words from Indian languages.

3.12 Reports and more Reports

As a result of the intense military and political activities in India
and the rest of the world, there was not much attention paid to
education in India. Under the pressure of the university education
and the demand for English, English education was fast spreading
all over India; at the same time, under the intense pressure of
nationalism and anti-British feelings the National Education
Movement was also gaining monementum.
92 The Story of English in India

3.12.1 Hartog Committee (1928-29)

In May 1928, the Simon Commission, a Statutory Commission
for inquiring into the social, political and economic progress of
India, was appointed. The commission in turn, appointed an
Auxiliary Committee popularly known as the Hartog
Committee, under the chairmanship of Sir Philip Hartog, who
was also a member of the Calcutta University Commission and
a Vice-Chancellor of Dacca University, to review the progress
of education in India. The Hartog Committee reviewed all
aspects of education—primary, secondary and university—and
concluded that quantitative expansion in the field of education
had been effected at the cost of quality, and that the immediate
need was to improve quality rather than increase the numbers
further. The Committee condemned the policy of 'hasty
expansion' and recommended 'consolidation and improvement'
in quality.
The Auxiliary Committee did not make a direct recommendation
about the medium of instruction; the report concentrated only
on organizational matters. But the Chairman of the committee,
Sir Philip Hartog, in a lecture delivered at the London Institute
of Education, talked about the problem of English as the
medium of instruction in India. He referred to the observation
of the Calcutta University Commission and said that 'it was in
the interest of India that English should be a compulsory second
language'. This was a very diplomatic way of handling the
problem and indirectly encouraging English and English
education.
In 1935, the Government of India Act made education a state
or provincial subject, except for certain categories like education
in the Defence forces, education in Centrally Administered
Areas, the administration of the Benares Hindu University and
the Aligarh Muslim University, and other institutions controlled
or financed by the Federal Central Government.
 The Dissemination Phase 93

3.12.2 Abbot-Wood Committee (1936-37)

In the same year, the Central Advisory Board of Education
(CABE) was revived and it recommended the appointment of
a committee to make recommendations for the reorganization
of education. Two experts, Mr Abbot, former Chief Inspector
of Technical Schools, Board of Education in England, and Mr
S.H. Wood, Director of Intelligence, Board of Education in
England, were appointed to study the problem and make
recommendations. They submitted their report in June 1937;
this report is known as the Abbot-Wood Report. The report
had two parts, Technical and General; and it was based on the
experience of the two authors during their visit to UP, Delhi
and the Punjab. The report said that technical education was
in no way inferior to general education; it recommended that
technical education be linked to industry and agriculture. As a
result of the Abbot-Wood Report and a subsequent report by a
special committee of the CABE, the All India Council for
Technical Education was formed in 1946.
The Abbot-Wood Report did not say anything new about
languages; it just remarked:
The mother-tongue should, as far as possible, be the medium of
instruction throughout the high school stage, but English should
be a compulsory language for all pupils at this stage. But the
teaching of English should be made more realistic.
Due to the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, no action
was taken on the recommendations of the report.

3.12.3 Zakir Hussain Committee on Basic Education

Mahatma Gandhi wrote, in the July 1937 issue of the Harijan,
'By education I mean an all-round drawing out of the best in
child and man—body, mind and spirit... literacy itself is no
education. I would, therefore, begin the child's education by
teaching a useful handicraft and enabling it to produce from
the moment it began its training. Thus, every school can be
made self-supporting... .'
94 The Story of English in India

In October 1937, a conference of national workers was called at

Wardha under the Presidentship of Mahatma Gandhi. The
conference appointed a committee, under the chairmanship of
Dr. Zakir Hussain, to prepare a plan for an Indian style of
education. A scheme, known as the Wardha Scheme of
Education, was prepared and it included a seven-year Course of
Basic Education. The important features of the scheme were:
1. Free and compulsory education should be provided on a
nation-wide scale for seven years.
2. The medium of instruction should be the mother tongue.
3. Education throughout the seven-year period should centre
around some form of manual and productive work, largely
related to the environment of the child.
The seven-year Course of Basic Education was to include the
basic crafts like spinning and weaving, carpentry, agriculture
and gardening, leatherwork, and other crafts, locally useful. It
emphasized the importance of the mother tongue, mathematics,
social studies, general science, drawing, music, and Hindustani.
This Course of Basic Education was adopted as the National
System of Education.
The Course of Basic Education emphasized the importance of
the mother tongue. It stated:
The proper teaching of the mother tongue is the foundation of all
education. Without the capacity to speak effectively and to read
and write correctly and lucidly no one can develop precision of
thought or clarity of ideas. Moreover, it is a means of introducing
the child to the rich heritage of his people's ideas, emotions and
aspirations, and can therefore be made a valuable means of social
education whilst also instilling right ethical and moral values. Also,
it is a natural outlet for the expression of the child's aesthetic sense
and appreciation, and if the proper approach is adopted, the study
of literature becomes a source of joy and creative appreciation.
Unfortunately, the Second World War broke out in 1939 and it
lasted for about six long years. India helped Britain with men,
 The Dissemination Phase 95

money and materials during the First World War (1914-1918);

in the words of Lord Hardinge, who was the Viceroy at that
time, 'India was bled absolutely white.' This was done willingly,
to bring about the defeat of Germany; naturally enough, India's
political leaders were determined to obtain for their country
the place to which it was entitled among the victors; the result
was a sustained effort to secure self-government for India. The
Indian National Congress, the Muslim League (founded in
1916), the National Liberal Federation (founded in 1919) and
Mahatma Gandhi launched various forms of resistance to awaken
the national consciousness—passive resistance, non-
cooperation, boycotts, civil disobedience—the country was in
a state of widespread unrest. When the Second World War broke
out in September 1939, the Viceroy, Lord Linlithgow (1936-
1943), pledged India's support to Great Britain without
consulting the Indian General Assembly;' Indian leaders were
told that they were nobodies and had better behave. This created
a lot of understandable resentment and even open opposition
to the Government. Satyagraha or civil disobedience and the
'Quit India' movement were started. At the same time, the
war efforts were on, and India helped the allies with men, money
and materials. But this time, the readiness of the Indian people
to offer their services in defence of Britain's cause was not due
to patriotic feelings; the majority of men who offered their
services were wage-earners and they went as soldiers and as
workers in labour camps or as factory hands. The war interrupted
the efforts in the field of education.

3.12.4 The Sargent Report (1944)

In 1944, the Central Advisory Board of Education in India
(CABE) published a report, or a plan of action, on the post-war
educational development in the country. John Sargent, the then
Educational Advisor to the Government of India, prepared this
report, called the Sargent Report. It outlined the type of
education desired for India.
96 The Story of English in India

The report restated the importance df basic education for India

and said that the medium of instruction should be the mother
tongue. It said that basic education should comprise a course
of eight years, consisting of two stages of fiye and three years
each. It stated that English should not be introduced even as
an optional subject in the basic schools. Unfortunately, this
report was drafted at a time when the techniques of perspective
planning were not sharp enough to project the national goals;
no proper research was done to project the growth of the
population or the rate of economic growth. The plan proposed
in the Sargent Report was not acceptable either to the Centre
or to the states. It remained an academic exercise.

3.13 During the Struggle for Independence

3.13.1 The Development of Nationalist Doctrines

in India
It is obvious (and even the British stated it) that the British
brought their language and literature as an important tool to
their colonial project; in fact, any country that invades another
brings in its own language and literature to be imposed on its
subjects. The Aryans did it and brought in the Sanskrit language
and literature. The Mughals did it and brought in Persian and
Arabic; the British also did the same.
The Macaulayan plan of education was intended to train a class
of interpreters and administrators to help the rulers build and
consolidate their Empire; that was the stated objective, and in
order to do that they had to demoralize the Indian subjects,
debunk their language, literature, religion, culture and values,
and destroy their self-esteem. At the same time, it can be
argued that if India is a nation today, it happened partly through
the efforts of the British to build an Empire, their able
administrative machinery, and mostly as a result of the anti-
colonial movement. It can reasonably be said that Indian
nationalism did not germinate of its own accord in the soil of
 The Dissemination Phase 97

the country; it was an exotic fruit of the interplay between the

seeds sown by the kind of European knowledge that was
imparted through English and English education and the nurture
found in the Indian soil. That was why Indian nationalism,
which ironically owed as much to contact with European
knowledge and English as to the inner urge of the-nation to
mould its destiny, did not show any real interest rejecting
English and English education either during the struggle for
freedom or even decades after independence. Thus, one can
say that without the existence of the British regime and the
element of foreign imperialism and oppression implicit in that
system, the beginnings of Indian nationalism would be difficult
to imagine.
Before the British came, India was ruled by hundreds of feudal
lords, who had their own territories, and fought with each other
frequently to prove their valour and might; India was never a
country even during the Mughal period. The British, by a
combination of power and administrative ability, united and
controlled the subcontinent during the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries and, as it happens in any country subjected
to foreign rule, the atmosphere in India during the first half of
the twentieth century was favourable to the growth of nationalist
sentiments. English, English education and European
knowledge created an Indian intelligentsia among whose ranks
the language and ideas found a ready welcome. It may be
difficult to swallow the fact that it was the. foreign hand that
prepared India for the reception of the nationalist ideology;
but the truth is that it is the 'foreign influence' that moulded
the content of early nationalist doctrines.
This was what some of our Indian thinkers said:
1. One of the most remarkable features of the British rule
in India has been the fact that the greatest injuries done
to the people of India have taken the outward form of
blessings. Of this, education is a striking example.
Ananda K. Coomarswamy
98 The Story of English in India

2. Were not the great leaders of the French Revolution,

Voltaire and Rousseau, Diderot and Helvetius, men more
or less imbued with English ideas and sentiments?
England has introduced a revolutionary agent of mighty
potency into this country. The revolutionary agent is
English education.
Surendra Nath Banerjee
3. The first effect of this unity of a new and quite opposite
civilization was the destruction of much that has no longer
the power to live... . It gave three needed impulses; it
rehabilitated life and awakened the desire to a new
creation; it put the reviving Indian spirit face to face with
novel conditions and ideals and urgent necessity of
understanding, assimilating and conquering them. The
national mind turned a new page on its past culture, re-
awoke to its sense and import and also at the same time
saw it in relation to modern knowledge and ideas.
Sri Aurobindo in The Renaissance in India
4. Our language has, in fact, no word corresponding to the
English word 'nation'... . And the reason is that our social
synthesis practically stopped with the race-idea ... we
never had therefore, this nationalist aspiration before.
Bipin Chandra Pal in Nationality and Empire
The great variety of races and languages, of caste, custom, of
religion and tradition and various conflicting interests in the
Indian subcontinent were a sufficient safeguard against any
attempted unity in the land. The unity was forged partly by
anti-British feelings. But there is no doubt that the content of
early Indian nationalist thought was very much influenced by
European education. The study of European and British history
and political doctrines indoctrinated the Indian intelligentsia;
such notions previously had no currency in the land of kings,
feudal lords and religious doctrines. The Bengali, the Malayali,
the Punjabi and the Tamilians are as much people of different
'countries' or 'nations' as the English, the French and the
German or the Italians.
 The Dissemination Phase 99

3.13.2 A Counter-view
At the same time, one cannot deny the sense of unity and
oneness that is found in the subcontinent; one encounters a
sameness everywhere from Kanyakumari to the Himalayas, with
slight differences arising from the fact that people of different
geographical regions follow different ways of living. But the
same classics, the same Puranas, the same philosophical
thoughts, the same traditions are found from one end to the
other of Bharat. There are bound to be local variations; even
other religions and philosophical streams merge with the main
stream of life again with some variations that suit their faiths.
Everywhere one finds the same substantive civilization. Such
sameness proves that the subcontinent was designed by nature
to form a grand national unity as given in the following passage:
Nature never destined India to be other than the abode of one
nation. The Himalayas, the Indus, the Brahmaputra and the seas
clearly demarcate one vast empire, the continuity of which is
scarcely broken up even by the great chain of mountains, which run
through it. The principal groups that inhabit it, are the Hindus
and the Mussulmans, who have promiscuously settled all over the
vast country. Disunion was the potent cause, which attested the
downfall of their supremacy. (A letter to the Editor in India Mirror,
13 February 1885.)
The unity that was inherent and dormant was, in a way, activated
by foreign learning and interaction. For example, the study of
Sanskrit by Sir William Jones, Max Mueller and other European
scholars, in a way, showed how Europeans and Indians were really
distant cousins, since both were descendants of the same tribes
that once grazed their flocks on the grasslands near the Caspian
Sea; their studies showed the greatness of the Aryan civilization
that had flourished in upper India. The English-educated class
in India showed a reverence of their ancient past and wanted a
regeneration of their country through the revival of the ancient
Hindu values and ideas. Underneath, there was also a sublime
dislike for the Muslim influence in, what was basically a 'Hindu
India'. That was Hindu cultural nationalism.
100 The Story of English in India

There were other distinct strands in the fabric of early Indian

nationalist doctrines. One school held that India was not really
prosperous under the British rule; their argument was that India
was in economicand industrial slavery in addition to political slavery.
They felt that owing to the ruin of India's manufacturing
potentials and the passing of economic and industrial control
into the hands of the British capitalists, India's wealth was
drained away into England. All the raw materials were taken
away to support British industries and manufacturers. The case
of cotton production in India, which was adding to the wealth
of English manufactures without improving the economic
condition of India's people, was given as an example. That was
economic nationalism.

There were others who championed political nationalism-, for

them, the only unifying factor was political ideology. Gandhiji's
denunciation of the Empire as a satanic creation was the starting
point. They argued that Indians should take advantage of the
'favourable circumstances' brought about by the British rule to
unite the Indian subcontinent. They said that in a way, the
impact of European education and the common language,
English, had prepared the country for national unity.
People from all strands of nationalism were English-educated and
they were in the forefront of the nationalist movement. The
English language itself, the linguistic and literary core of English
education, contained the message; the medium was the message.
But, schooled in a foreign culture, speaking a foreign language
when occasion demanded, indoctrinated with political, social,
cultural and economic concepts and inspired by the dream of
the ancient glory of the Indian civilization, the English-educated
native intelligentsia developed aspirations very different from
those envisaged by Grant, Macaulay, Bentinck, Trevelyan and
others. Instead of serving as the henchmen of British
imperialism, the natives turned into its bitter critics; instead
of begging for the benevolence of the rulers, they found fault
with those in authority and raised cries of 'Quit India', 'India
for the Indians', and so on. They started building their own
 The Dissemination Phase 101

political and cultural organizations. Political agitation started,

both violent and non-violent.

3.13.3 Unexpected Reversals

The roots of English education did produce some unexpected
reversals as anticipated by some among the British rulers.
Bentinck, for example, saw danger in the spread of knowledge
in India. He was desirous of anglicizing Indians or rather
preventing them from forming a homogenous nation. Sir John
Malcolm, the biographer of Clive, told the Lords' Committee
that 'our Indian subjects might desire from the general diffusion
and the eventual abolition of castes, a consciousness of which
would naturally incline them to throw off the yoke of a foreign
power.' He argued that 'our power rests upon the general division
of the great communities under the government... while they
continue to divide in this manner, no insurrection is likely to
shake the stability of our power.' The opinion was that 'we had
just lost America from our folly and that it would not do for us
to repeat the same act of folly in regard to India.' They perceived
the extension of knowledge to be a source of danger, but, at the
same time, they wanted to produce cheap clerks and useful
subordinates to run the administration.
It was from considerations of 'enlightened selfishness' that
the British imparted some sort of education to the 'swarthy
heathens' of India. But the tools of enlightenment that were
put into the hands of the 'slaves' by the 'benevolent masters'
were effectively used by the natives for purposes other than
those for which they were intended.
Michel de Certeau, a French social philosopher, in The Practice
of Everyday Life, explains the reversal tactics:
Thus the spectacular conquest of Spanish colonization over the
indigenous Indian cultures was diverted from its intended aims by
the use made of it; even when they were subjected, indeed when
they accepted their subjection, the Indians often used the laws,
practices, and representations that were imposed on them by force
102 The Story of English in India

or by fascination to ends other than those of their conquerors; they

made something else out of them; they subverted them from
within—not by rejecting them or by transforming them (though
that occurred as well), but by many different ways of using them in
the service of the rules, customs or convictions foreign to the
colonization which they could not escape. They metaphorized the
dominant order; they made it function in another register.
What Certeau says of 'indigenous Indian cultures' in America
is also true of the cultures of the Indian subcontinent. The
hostility toward British colonialism brought together regions,
religions and linguistic and ethnic groups, which the colonial
machine had assembled into a state called India—an
administrative unit for the purposes of ruling convenience. The
emotional India that emerged as a 'nation' was brought about
by anti-colonialism. The English language helped this process
in a big way.
In Shakespeare's Tempest, Caliban, a West Indian who is seen as
a creature outside civilization 'on whose nature, nurture can
never stick' (IV. i. 188-9) and whose status is denied by
European perceptions, is like the natives of India.. Prospero's
claim that in exchange he has given Caliban the gift of language
is the prototype of the European civilization that wants to
enlighten the natives. Caliban's response is very significant:
You taught me language; and my profit on't
Is, I know how to curse: the red plague rid you,
For learning me your language!
(I. ii. 365-7)
It has to be read in the context of India's struggle for freedom
and English education; it is to be read as an example of a culture
that imposed its language and knowledge on another culture
with a view to enlightening the natives. Indians learnt the
language and 'the profit on't' was that they cursed the British
in their own tongue. Indians asked for the very freedom and
liberty that their European knowledge gave them. Indians
projected their identity in English.
 The Dissemination Phase 103

Starting with Swami Vivekananda, who presented India and its

spiritualism to the world, most Indian leaders projected India,
its culture and values, its sensibilities and its identity in English.
Sri Aurobindo projected Indian spirituality in English;
Radhakrishnan presented Indian philosophy in English; Mahatma
Gandhi explained his philosophy of non-violence in English;
Jawarhalal Nehru 'discovered India' in English so that the outside
world could discover it too. Tilak, Gokhale, Subhash Chandra
Bose, Sardar Patel, Rajendra Prasad, Ambedkar, Sarojini Naidu,
Tagore, Jinnah, and a host of others projected India's aspirations
and its quest for freedom in English. Rajagopalachari presented
the Indian epics—the Ramayana and the Mahabharata—in
English. Writers like R. K. Narayanan, Raja Rao, Mulk Raj Anand,
Ahmed Ali and many others expressed their literary creativity
in English.
Henry Kissinger, in an interview {India Today, 28 February 1985),
rightly pointed out 'India, precisely because it speaks English,
is a democracy and all of us know Indians.' We may not agree
with the statement that India is a democracy because it speaks
English, but, certainly, the world outside knows India because
Indians use English. India, its heritage, its aspirations and
dreams, its problems and strengths were effectively presented
to the outside world by the leaders during the freedom struggle
in English. But all that happened only outside the formal
educational system—the universities, colleges and schools. The
formal educational system continued to be colonial in content
and character. The educational system failed to cash in on
what the independence struggle did with English and English
education; the educational system was not decolonized.

3.14 English Becomes a Second Language

The educated Indian class became considerable in number and
emerged as a group in the late nineteenth century and twentieth
century. The craze for government service and a university
degree also produced a large number of semi-educated Indians
104 The Story of English in India

who had a miserable existence as quill drivers in business houses

and government offices in the larger towns of India, lacking
social position and unable to rise above the status of petty clerk.
They formed a kind of rootless 'educated proletariat' whose
dissatisfaction with their lot was simmering. Intellectually
superior Indians, the educated class, who had degrees from
British Universities or one of the older Indian Universities also
nursed a grievance against the haughty foreigners who had
monopolized all the highly paid posts in the government service.
Dislike of the British bureaucracy brought about the alliance of
the educated and the partly-educated class. Therefore, it was
not hard to appeal to the vast majority of Indians with the slogan
'India for the Indians'; political agitations began to bear fruit in
the form of more and more enthusiastic native recruits. English,
any Indian language or any combination of languages worked in
the changed atmosphere. Interaction between various groups
of Indians from different parts of the country increased, and
the medium or interaction was English; at the same time, the
interaction in English with native users of English was getting
restricted to certain limited areas like political negotiations;
patriotic feeling was, in a way, restricting the interaction with
the British.
The English language arrived in India with the East India
Company and, later, came to represent the British Empire; it
symbolized power and it was promoted more as a culture. It
was a language that was meant for mind-training and
sophistication. Advocates of Western education and the
teaching of English drew on the parallels of acculturation from
European history: how Greek antiquity was passed on to Rome
and how Rome civilized Europe; advocates of English education
were confident of inducing an epicycle of European history in
India and some in India shared that belief. The teaching of
English as a culture, as a foreign language and the importance
attached to English education in midwifingan acculturated elite
sprang from a long-range imperialistic concern. This picture
drastically changed during India's struggle for independence.
 The Dissemination Phase 105

The English language was stripped of its culture and class

character; the subversion was subtle, and educated Indians used
English for a different purpose and made it function in a
different register. In the tradition of India, the English language
was absorbed as another tongue in the Great Indian Language
Bazaar. It was turned into a second language, one more tongue
to project Indian identity and India's aspirations. Indians,
particularly those who were involved in the freedom movement,
did not use the English language to learn or express British
culture; instead, they used the language to abominate and
debunk the white man's culture. Instead of India getting
acculturated, the English language was getting acculturated.
The growth of the print media accelerated the use of English
as a second language: there were only thirty-two English dailies
in 1937 and the number increased to fifty-one in 1947; there
were only thirty-two English weeklies in 1937 and it increased
to 258 in 1947. The print media too, which was urban-based,
was using English more as a second language.
'Macaulay's children', the English-educated class, took over the
English language and started changing its character. The
number of Indians using the language and the struggle for
freedom stripped the language of its British culture and made
it a tool for communication and a tongue for projecting national
aspirations and sensibilities.
On 15 August 1947, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in his 'Tryst with
Destiny' speech before the Constituent Assembly announcing
the rebirth of India as a nation, declared:
At the stroke of midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will
awake to life and freedom. A*moment comes, which comes but
rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an
age ends, and when the soul of the nation, long suppressed, finds
utterance....
That utterance was in 'English' that tryst was in the English of
a Cambridge-educated Indian.
106 The Story of English in India

Important Dates and Events

1901 The Education conference at Simla
1902 Indian Universities Commission
1904 Government of India Resolution of 1904; Indian
Universities Act
1906 Muslim League founded
1911 Capital moved from Calcutta to Delhi; Bengal partitioned
by Lord Curzon was reunited
1912 Resolution on Educational Policy; recommends the need
for establishing new universities—six more were
established during 1913-20.
1914-8 First World War
1917 Declaration of self-government; Calcutta University
Commission (Sadler Commission)
1920-2 Non-cooperation movement; Nagpur Congress and
Swadesi education movement
1921 Department of Education transferred to the control of
Indian ministers
1925 Inter-university Board established
1928-9 Hartog Committee
1928-30 Dandi March
1935 Government of India Act: more powers to provincial
Legislatures
1937 Provincial Autonomy: Congress ministers assume power;
Abbot-Wood Report (1936-37)
1938 Zakir Hussain Committee on Basic Education
1939-45 Second World War
1942 Quit India Movement
1944 The Central Advisory Board of Education's plan; Sargent
Report
 The Dissemination Phase 107

1946-7 Expansion of education

1947 India's political independence

Viceroys during this period

Lord Curzon 1899-1905
Lord Minto 1905-1910
Lord Hardinge 1910-1916
Lord Chelmsford 1916-1921
Lord Reading 1921-1926
Lord Irwin 1926-1931
The Earl of Willingdon 1931-1936
Lord Linlithgow 1936-1943
LordWawell 1943-1947
Lord Mountbatten 1947 (The last British Viceroy)

References
Certeau, Michel de (1984). The Practice of Everyday Life (Trans. Steven F.
Rendall). Berkeley: University California Press.

Narayan, S. (1962). On Education.

Raleigh. T. ed. (1906). Lord Curzon in India: A Selection of his

Speeches^ 899-1905). London.

Report II of the Calcutta University Commission.

Report V of the Calcutta University Commission.

Selections from English Periodicals of the 19th Century Bengal, Vol. Ill:
1875-80.
The Indian Universities Commission Report.

Vivekananda. The Compelete Works ofSwami Vivekananda, Vol I.

 The Identity Phase

4.1 The White Ruler Departs

World War II ended in 1945; in spite of the War and the Bengal
famine in which more than 1,50,000 people died of hunger and
epidemic disease, the political situation in India did not ease.
The 'Quit India' demand became more widespread; India was
in a state of confusion. The solution to the Indian problem was
made possible by the defeat of the Conservative party in" the
British elections of 1945, and the coming to power of the Labour
Party, whose main concern was to come to an agreement with
Indian leaders. Lord Wavell was the Viceroy at the time; he set
up an interim government, which assumed power in September
1946 with Jawaharlal Nehru as the head. At first, the Muslim
League refused to take part in the Government, in October, it
reluctantly consented to join; but in December it withdrew
again from the Government. The Constituent Assembly opened
without any representatives of the League. Mr Clement Attlee,
the Labour Prime Minister, declared on 20 February 1947, in
the House of Commons, that the British government intended
to transfer power and responsibility to the Indians by a date
not later than June 1948. Lord Wavell was recalled before the
completion of his Viceregal office and Lord Mountbatten
assumed office in March 1947; he was the last of the British
Viceroys in India.
Lord Mountbatten realized that there was an unbridgeable gap
between the Congress and the League, and, on the basis of the
recommendations made by the Cabinet, he advised the partition
of the subcontinent into two States: India and Pakistan. The
Mountbatten plan was accepted and, on 1 July 1947, the British
Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act. On 15 August
1947, there came into existence two States: India and Pakistan.
 The Identity Phase 109

The King of England ceased to be the Emperor of India; the

office of Viceroy lapsed and in its place India and Pakistan had
each a Governor General appointed by the King. Thus, on 15
August 1947, a new era began in Indian history. At this time,
India was not like a finished house ready for occupation; the
building was only partly erected. The Indian princes were given
the right to join the newly established Dominion of India or to
remain outside it. In a way, they were ordered to join the Indian
union by Sardar Patel; all complied, except Hyderabad and
Jammu amd Kashmir. Hyderabad was compelled by force to
yield, while Jammu and Kashmir joined the union when it was
threatened with invasion by the northern tribes. The new
constitution was approved and adopted on 26 November 1947,
and India became a Republic on 26 January 1950.
The White rulers left but the English-educated brown 'Sahibs',
creations of Macualay, took over; the Republic of India, to a
large extent, used English. The Indian constitution was written
in English; the administration and the judiciary used English.
T h e British left a network of railways, post and
telecommunication and a formidable bureaucracy, all transacting
their business mostly in English.

4.2 Reverence and Abhorrence

After Independence, the language issue became an emotional
one; hatred of the British got mixed up with, dislike for the
English language; and hatred of the British and their language
became a symbol of nationalism for some. They thought that
English and English education were the symbols of the eternal
slavery' and degradation of Indians; they argued that English
was the root cause of all the woes of India and they wanted to
throw the baby out with the bathwater. They declared that
the English language should be thrown out along with the
British and they even called the English-educated 'brown
Sahibs' and 'Macaulay's Children'. They were responsible for
the Angrezi Hatao campaign.
110 The Story of English in India

There were others who thought that Indian nationalism was a

by-product of English education and that Indians got their ideas
of freedom and democracy from the West, through English and
English education; some of them even argued that India became
a nation thanks to the British administrative network and anti-
British emotions. Some pointed to material benefits like the
railways, the telecommunications network, the printing press
and other communication facilities that unified the country.
There were still others who thought that the British master
somehow gave the Indians a tongue to curse them, 'if not a
song at least a tune'.
Some English-educated bureaucrats, who enjoyed the 'status'
given by English education, pointed out the efficient
administrative network and the hill-stations developed by the
British for their comfort and convenience. They enjoyed the
power and status given to them by a knowledge of English.
Once the British rulers left, the forces that united at the time
of the freedom struggle started struggling to establish their
own separate identities. Extreme positions were taken and the
language issue was mixed with patriotism and linguistic
chauvinism. Language agitations and the demand to recognise
the states on linguistic grounds also started. The net result
was a confused picture, without any clarity regarding the position
of English in free India.
There were others who had a balanced approach to the problem.
C. Rajagopalachari, the first and last Indian Governor General
of Independent India, once remarked that 'The English language
is Goddess Saraswati's gift to India, a blessing which Indians
were privileged to receive.' One can reasonably say -that the
English language helped the freedom struggle to some extent;
leaders from various linguistic regions were able to talk to each
other and exchange their ideas in English; they were also able
to tell the British about the aspirations of the Indians in
effective English; easy communication was made possible thanks
to English. In other words, the English language, which is a
 The Identity Phase 111

product of the colonial rule, was a blessing in disguise. It is

also true that Indian nationalism and the Renaissance of the
arts and sciences in India were, in a sense, unexpected reversals
of the aims of British education, or, at the most, the by-products
of European education. Others can also argue, obviously, that
the tools of'enlightenment' were deliberately put into the hands
of the subjects by the masters at the risk of endangering their
own position; but, there is always a gap between the message
intended and how it is received and used; that gap itself helps
subversion. That was what happened to the intentions of the
British rulers that were subverted from the inside by the Indians.
With the advent of Independence, India should have, as America
did after independence, redefined its goals and priorities in
education, in European education, and the role of the English
language. That was not possible because the situation in India
was too complex to be handled.

4.3 Lessons from History

Some scholars pointed to the parallel situations that existed in
other countries regarding the position of and attitude to
language. Years ago, even in England, there was a similar linguistic
situation. Britain was subjected to the domination of foreign
languages twice. First from AD 43 to AD 410, when the island
was subjected to the rule of the Romans, Latin was the official
language; it was the language of Christianity. During the second
spell from AD 1066 to AD 1362, the island was under the rule of
the Normans and French was made the official language. English
was only a vernacular and not a respectable language. Latin and
Greek were a part of the cultural transplant and French became
the court language, the language of administration, and a status
symbol. English was the language of the masses. The situation
was similar to that of India. The Anglo-French nobility, like
the Anglo-Indian class, were more loyal to the ruling class; French
was the language of the cultural class and the middle class in
England started learning French. The situation in England
112 The Story of English in India

during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries was very much

like that in India during the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries. But the situation in England changed; there was a
strong national sentiment and the movement 'England for the
English' started. Ultimately, by the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries, England found its native voice in English, the King's
or the Queen's English. Then they started singing 'Rule,
Britannia! Britannia rules the waves! Britons never shall be
slaves'. The Englishman was proud to be an Englishman:
He is an Englishman!
For he himself has said it,
And it's greatly to his credit,
That he is an Englishman!
For he might have been a Roosian,
A French or Turk or Proosian,
Or perhaps Italian.
But in spite of all temptations
To belong to other nations,
He remains an Englishman!
(WS. Gilbert. HMS. Pinafore. II)
The English tried hard, developed their language and made it
the medium of instruction not only in their own land but also
in India.
England assimilated foreign rule but rejected the foreign
languages; India, on the other hand, rejected the foreign rule
but, reluctantly, retained the alien language. The English
language assimilated the influence of the French language; but,
in India, English and Indian languages got mixed up. Something
different was (and is) happening in India. England was a small
country and more of a monolingual area; India, on the contrary,
is a multiverse: multilingual, multicultural, multireligious,
 The Identity Phase 113

multi-ethnic, and a vast area, a subcontinent. No single solution

will be acceptable to all.
Comparisons were made with the erstwhile USSR which had
130 spoken languages, twenty of them with a written form,
and only four—Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian, and Armenian—
with their own scripts; there were five scripts—Russian, Latin,
Hebrew, Arabic, and Vigur Mongolic. There were different
ethnic and religious groups. In the old Soviet Union, language
policy was the theory that was consciously influencing language
development, which was politically motivated. There was
considerable resistance to language reform and socialist
unification. The Communist party of the Soviet Union with
all its tight control could not succeed in the experiment, and
the USSR ultimately broke up, partly due to linguistic reasons.
Even China, a vast area like the Indian subcontinent, has
variations, if only in the spoken form of Chinese; the written
form is the same for all the dialects of Chinese. Some compare
India with Japan, but Japan is a small country and is monolingual.
So, these comparisons have only limited parallels. India is the
world's largest democracy and democracy brings with it the
uncertainties and diverse points of view that go with the freedom
of expression. That was why there was no clear-cut stand
towards English. Jawaharlal Nehru's famous statements capture
the pangs of 'English India'. He declared that it was the
Government's policy to shake India free of English within a
generation; but, he 'declared' again:
.... For an indefinite period—I do not know how long—I should
have, I would have English as an associate, additional language
which can be used, not because of facilities and all that, but because
I do not wish the people of non-Hindi areas to feel that certain
doors of advance are closed to them because they are forced to
correspond—the Government, I mean—in the Hindi language.
They can correspond in English. So, I could have it as an alternative
language as long as people require it and the decision for that—I
would leave not to Hindi-knowing people, but to non-Hindi-
knowing people. (Nehru, 7 August 1958)
114 The Story of English in India

Earlier, he had 'declared' during the parliament discussion on

the report of the States Re-organization Commission:
I recognize that the language of the people is a vital matter for their
development, whether it is in education, administration or any
other matter. But there is a distinction between developing the
language to the fullest extent and their passion for building up a
wall around a linguistic area and calling it a border. I completely
accept the statement that people cannot really grow except,through
their language, but it does not follow that in order to make their
language grow, a barrier must be erected between them and others.
(Nehru, March 1953)

4.4 More Commissions and Committees

In post-Independence India, there has been no clarity regarding
the goals of education in general, English education in particular,
and the status of English. All the commissions and committees
appointed to study the problem of education in India have
emphasized the importance of the mother tongue as the medium
of instruction and the study of English as a subject; these were
emphasized earlier by all the committees and commissions,
starting with the Wood's Despatch. It is interesting to note
that most of the recommendations found in the reports written
after 1947 are also found in the reports written before 1947.
All the recommendations point to the fact that English and
English education are well entrenched in the educational system
of India; English got institutionalized in India and it got its
own identity after 1947.
The following commissions, committees, and events are worth
mentioning in the context of the history of English in India.
1948-9 The University Education Commission.
Popularly known as the Radhakrishnan
Commission
1951 Committee on Primary Education
 The Identity Phase 115

1952-3 The Secondary Education Commission.

Popularly known as the Mudaliar
Commission
1956 The Official Language Commission
1958 All India Language Conference.
1961 (August) Chief Ministers' Conference
1961 (October) National Integration Conference
1963 The Official Language Act (Amended in
1967)
1964-6 The Education Commission, popularly
known as the Kothari Commission
1968 NPE : National Policy on Education
1969-71 The Study Group Report on the Teaching
f English, popularly known as the Gokak
"ommittee Report
1979 The Draft National Policy on Education
by the Government of India
1986 NEP and POA: National Education Policy
and Programme of Action (NEP is also
known as NPE: National Policy on
Education)
1989 CDC Report : The Report of the
Curriculum Development Centre
1990 Acharya Ramamurti Commission
4.4.1 The University Education Commission
(1948-9)
Following the colonial educational policy, immediately after
Independence, a commission was appointed under the
chairmanship of Dr S. Radhakrishnan, a distinguished
116 The Story of English in India

philosopher and the former Vice-Chancellor of Banaras Hindu

University, who later became the President of India. The
Commission consisted mostly of intellectuals and
educationalists. It considered the role of University education
in broad, universal terms, emphasizing goals like awakening the
innate ability of men and women 'to live the life of the soul by
developing wisdom', training for self-development and the
development of values 'like fearlessness of mind, strength of
conscience and integrity of purpose.' Dr. Radhakrishnan, being
a great philosopher, outlined the aims of education in idealistic
terms.
T h e report first outlined the benefits given by English
education:
Now it is true that the English language has been one of the potent
factors in the development of unity in the country. In fact, the
concept of nationality and the sentiment of nationalism are largely
the gift of the English language and literature in India. This debt
alone is considerable, and the fear that, in the absence of the binding
force of English, there will be reversion to old differences and
divisions is so great that many advocate the retention of English as
an instrument for the continuance and fostering of the unity which
it has helped to create. But, in addition, English has supplied us
with the key to the fundamental ideas of modern civilization,
modern science and philosophy, and what is even more important,
for all practical purposes English will continue to be the principal
means of maintaining contact with the outside world. Besides,
English is an international language and, if catastrophic events do
not alter the present posture of world forces, it will soon be the
world language—English has become so much a part of our national
habit that a plunge into an altogether different system seems
attended with unusual risks.
But, the Commission said that the risk must be taken:
English cannot continue to occupy the place of state language as in
the past. Use of English as such divides the people into two nations,
the few who govern and the many who are governed, the one unable
to talk the language of the other, and mutually uncomprehending.
This is a negation of democracy. (Report: 319-25)
 The Identity Phase 117

The Commission recommended that Hindi should be the

alternative:
There is no other alternative but to choose a language spoken by a
high percentage of the people of India, to give it the status of state
language, and to develop it for the chosen task. ... National needs
compel the recognition of Hindi (Hindustani) as India's federal
language. (Report: 319-25)
At the same time, the Commission emphasized the importance
of English:
English however, must continue to be studied. It is a language
which is rich in literature—humanistic, scientific and technical.
If under sentimental urges we should give up English, we would
cut ourselves off from the stream of ever growing knowledge—our
students must acquire sufficient mastery of English to give them
access to the treasures of knowledge, and in the universities, no
student should be allowed to take a degree who does not acquire
the ability to read with facility and understanding works of English
authors. (Report: 319-25)
Regarding the medium of instruction, the Commission made
the following recommendations:
1. The federal language should be developed through the
assimilation of words from various sources and the retention
of words which have already entered Indian languages from
different sources.
2. International technical and scientific terminology should
be adopted, and the borrowed words be properly assimilated.
3. English should be replaced as early as practicable by an
Indian language as the medium of instruction for higher
education. This language cannot be Sanskrit on account of
vital difficulties.
4. (a) Pupils at the higher secondary and university stages
should be made conversant with three languages—the
regional language, the federal language and English (the last
one in order to acquire the ability to read books in English),
118 The Story of English in India

and (b) one script, Devanagiri, should be employed and for

the federal language, some of its defects be removed.
5. English should be studied in high schools and in the
universities in order to keep in touch with the living stream
of ever growing knowledge.
The report of the Radhakrishnan Commission was full of high-
sounding expressions and lofty ideals (like rediscovering the
glory of our cultural heritage), and contradictions. It says Hindi
is the language of a minority and there are languages like Tamil,
hallowed with age:
Hindi is a language of the minority, although a large minority.
Unfortunately, it does not possess any advantage, literary or
historical, over the other modern Indian languages. Tamil, for
instance, is hallowed with age and possesses a literature which vies
with that in Sanskrit. Marathi goes back to the thirteenth century
and Bengali claims a continuous growth since the ninth.
The report says that English has 'become so much a part of our
national habit', but, in the same breath, points out that the use
of English 'has divided the people into two nations, the few
who govern and the many who are governed, the one unable to
talk the language of the other and mutually uncomprehending,
which is a negation of democracy.' The Commission rejected
English but accepted the debt we owe to the language. There
were a number of important issues like the development of
Indian languages, the time required to replace English and how
it was to be done that remained unanswered in the report. It is
one thing to declare that English must go but the educated
people and the intellectuals brought up in the Macaulayan
tradition were fully aware of the implications of such emotive
declarations; it is not so easy to discard overnight something
that has been with the country for more than a hundred yedrs.
In a way, the Radhakrishnan Commission raised the old question
found in every report right from Macaulay's Minute—English
versus the Indian languages. Lord Macaualay, as could be
expected, opted in favour of English but free India could not
afford to say that for reasons of patriotism.
 The Identity Phase 119

The Radhakrishnan Commission Report, the first one to study

the language problem in India, inadvertently sowed the seeds
of the Hindi versus non-Hindi controversy and language
conflicts; the non-Hindi areas perceived a grave threat to their
languages, the balance of power, and even employment
opportunities.

4.4.2 Committee on Primary Education

The next committee, appointed in 1951, under the chairmanship
of Mr B.G. Kher, the then Chief Minister of Bombay, was the
Committee on Primary Education. The Committee
recommended mostly administrative measures and the creation
of educational institutions in small municipalities and
panchayats. It did not go into academic matters connected
with primary education.

4.4.3 Secondary Education Commission (1952-3)

The Secondary Education Commission was appointed under
the Chairmanship of Dr A. Lakshmanaswamy Mudaliar, the then
Vice-Chancellor of Madras University; it submitted its report
in 1953. It is popularly known as the Mudaliar Commission.
It concentrated only on school level education. The
Commission recommended the diversification of courses after
the middle stage, the establishment of multipurpose schools,
and the improvement of teacher training programmes.
The Commission recommended the following regarding the
study of languages.
1. The mother tongue or the regional language should generally
be the medium of instruction throughout the secondary
school stage, subject to the provision that special facilities
should be made available for linguistic minorities on the
lines suggested by the Central Advisory Board of Education.
2. During the middle school stage, every child should be taught
at least two languages. English and Hindi should be
introduced at the end of the junior basic stage, subject to
120 The Story of English in India

the principle that no two languages should be introduced

in the same year. At the high and higher secondary stage, at
least two languages should be studied, one of them being
the mother tongue or the regional language,
3. At the end of the middle school stage, pupils should be
allowed to choose to continue the study of Hindi or English
at the high or higher secondary level, depending on the
nature of the course they wishes to pursue.
The Commission assumed that Hindi would be the federal
language and English would continue for some time as the
language of the union and the medium of instruction at the
university level. So, it said that, in view of the fact that English
was the medium of instruction in the universities, the
continuance of English as the medium at the school level was
inevitable.
The Commission felt that we should not be dogmatic on an
important issue like the choice and study of languages. It gave
several examples of countries like Switzerland wherfe German,
French and Italian were recognized as official languages and
Canada, where English aild'French were used; they also referred
to South Africa where Afrikaans, Dutch and English were
commonly used. But the Commission concluded that 'until
books written in the regional languages replace books now
available in a foreign language, it is inevitable that students will
need to have a good knowledge of English to study the subjects
in the books available in that language' (Report: 73).
The Commission recommended a number of improvements in
the quality of education; but the ground realities and the market
forces took education mostly along Macaulayan lines. It was
the university system and the demand for a university degree
that decided the fate of school education. The bureaucratic
hold did not allow any radical departure from the colonial pattern
of education. As a result, the educational system continued to
drift even after independence.
 The Identity Phase 121

4.4.4 Official Languages Commission

In 1956, the Official Languages Commission submitted its
report, which was accepted in 1958. The report said that.
English would be replaced by Hindi after 1965, and English
would continue only as a subsidiary language. So, on 17 April
1960, a Presidential Order was issued that contained the
modalities for implementing the recommendations of the
report. According to the order:
1. Hindi would be admitted as an alternative to the Union
Public Service Commission's recruitment
2. The language of the Supreme Court would be Hindi and it
would be the language of all the High Courts in the states.
Immediately, there were repercussions in the non-Hindi areas.
An All India Language Conference was convened at the initiative
of C. Rajagopalachari. Representatives of Assamese, Bengali,
Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu took part
in the conference. They felt that Hindi was as much a foreign
language as English was to the non-Hindi speaking people and
that they did not want the imposition of Hindi on them.
Therefore, they demanded that English continue as the language
of the union without any time limit.
In 1965, anti-Hindi riots broke out. In the south, the DMK
led the anti-Hindi movement; several regional and national
leaders like Kamaraj Nadar, C. Rajagopalachari, Frank Anthony,
E.V Ramaswamy Naicker, C.N. Annadurai and others were
involved in the movement. At the same time, the Angrezi Hatao
campaign was intensified in some parts of India. There was an
urgency to sort out the emotional issue. To remove any
misapprehensions in the minds of the people of the non-Hindi
speaking states, Lai Bahadur Shastri, who was then the Prime
Minister of India, said that he would fully honour Nehru's
assurance that English would be used as long as the people
wanted it. He gave five assurances.
122 The Story of English in India

1. Every state would have complete freedom to transact its

business in the language of its own choice, which could be
the regional language or English.
2. Communication from one state to another would be either
in English or would be accompanied by an authentic English
translation.
3. The non-Hindi states would be free to correspond with the
central government in English.
4. English would continue to be used in the transaction of
business at the central level.
5. The All India Civil Services examinations would continue
to be conducted in English.
Thus, English continued as the official, associate language.
T h e Conference of Chief Ministers held in August 1961
recommended a three-language formula. This meant:
1. The regional language or the mother tongue when different
from the regional language
2. Hindi, or any other Indian language in the Hindi-speaking
areas
3. English, or any other modern European language
The sense of equity behind this solution was not in question,
the intention being to make the load of learning equal in all
parts of the country and also to achieve national integration.
But, it was, to say the least, an unrealistic formula, as it ignored
both the lack of motivation among learners in the Hindi-speaking
north to learn any other Indian language and the sentiments of
the people in the south. Perhaps, it was consequent to the
political opposition, particularly in Tamil Nadu, to the
imposition of Hindi, as it was viewed there. No wonder the
three-language formula was not uniformly adopted, at any rate
not in the areas where it mattered most. The compromise was
widely accepted by various language groups as a political solution
to the vexed language problem.
 The Identity Phase 123

4.4.5 National Integration Conference

The formula was endorsed by the National Integration
Conference in October 1961. The Constitution was amended
in 1963 to the effect that notwithstanding the time limit of
fifteen years for the continuation of English, the English
language may continue to be used, in addition to Hindi, for all
official purposes of the Union and in the Parliament. But the
non-Hindi areas were not happy about the use of may and they
wanted may to be replaced by shall So, the Official Language
(Amendement) Act was passed in 1967 to remove all ambiguity
in the Act. It said 'English will continue as an associate official
language for an indefinite period'. Thus, English got official
status even in free India.

4.4.6 The Education Commission (1964-6)

After the report of the Secondary Education Commission, there
were a number of committees that examined various issues like
basic education, Sanskrit education, science education, women's
education, religious and moral instruction, student indiscipline,
emotional integration, child care etcetera; there was even a
committee on school buildings. They produced reports and
more reports.
The sixth important commission on education was appointed
on 2 October 1964, Mahatma Gandhi's birthday, and it
submitted its report in June 1966. It was a voluminous report,
covering every aspect of education; it was appropriately entitled
'Education and National Development'. Professor D.S. Kothari
was its Chairman; so, it is popularly known as the Kothari
Commission. The report examined several aspects of education,
such as education and life, the needs and aspirations of people,
education and productivity, vocationalization, education and
national integration, education and modernization, education
and secularism, etc. It made several important
recommendations like the 10+2+3 pattern of education.
The Commission did not say anything specific about the
medium of instruction but discussed the problem of language
124 The Story of English in India

in t h e c o m p l e x educational scenario in India; it did n o t

recommend any one language as the medium of instruction for
the country as a whole.
T h e report said:
It has been sometimes argued that there should be a single medium
ofeducation at the university stage—English for the time being, to
be ultimately substituted by Hindi—on the grounds that it would
promote mobility of teachers and students from one part of the
country to another, provide for easy communication between
academic men and administrators, further intellectual cooperation
among the universities and,help in other ways in developing a
corporate intellectual life in the country. We are inclined to think,
on the balance of considerations, that this solution is not feasible.
In practice, it will probably mean the indefinite continuance of
English as the only medium of higher education, a development
that we cannot support in the larger interests of the country. The
adoption of Hindi as a common medium of education in all parts of
India is not possible for some years to come, and in non-Hindi
areas, it will still have some of the disadvantages associated with
the use of a foreign medium and is likely to be resisted. It would,
therefore, be unwise to strive to reverse the present trend for the
adoption of the regional languages as the media of education at the
university stage and to insist on the use of a common medium in
higher education throughout the country. (Report: 14)
The same dilemma persisted—English, being an alien language,
cannot be the medium of education; Hindi was not acceptable
to non-Hindi areas and Indian languages were not fully developed
to take over the functions of English. This is the same song, in
all the reports, with different tunes.
The Kothari Commission recommended that regional languages
be developed and used increasingly at the higher levels too; at
the same time, for all-India institutions, English be continued
as the medium of instruction and Hindi be developed. It even
recommended that a limited number of institutions be
developed with world languages as the media of instruction with
a view to promoting international cooperation and understanding.
The report said that English should continue as a library language,
 The Identity Phase 125

and a channel for international communication. A reasonable

degree of proficiency in English was to be stipulated as essential
for the award of a degree. The report also said that special
units should be set up for teaching English as a language skill,
as distinct from teaching it as literature.
The Kothari Commission strongly recommended that regional
languages be made the official languages of the regions
concerned; it even suggested that a feasible programme suitable
to each university or group of universities be worked out so
that the change-over could be effected as early as possible, and
the regional languages be made the media of instruction. The
report pointed out that the present drift in the policy was
harmful. Unfortunately, the commission's report could not stop
the drift.

4.5 Other Developments in English Teaching

At the international level, during and after the two World Wars,
there were a number of important developments in the area of
linguistics and language teaching. There was widespread
dissatisfaction with the 'grammar-translation' method, which
was no method but a kind of bilingual work with focus on
grammar rules and literary texts; as a result the Direct Method
was advocated. Henry Sweet, Harold Plamer, Michael West
(who worked in India and produced his New Method Series and
other text books), A. S. Hornby, Daniel Jones, P. C. Wren, Otto
Jespersen, Champion and others influenced the growth of the
Direct Method. Structural linguistics, behavioural psychology,
and the World Wars saw the emergence of many language-
teaching methods like the audio-lingual method, oral-aural
method, situational method—all part of what came to be known
as the Structural Approach. The emergence of these methods,
in India too, necessitated the need for teacher training. Pre-
service training for school level teaching was given importance,
with changing labels like L.T., B.T., and B.Ed., and there was
no focus on in-service training. Usually, the school inspectors
were the interpreters of these methods and as a result, these
126 The Story of English in India

methods became the methods of the School Directorate and

bureaucratic control increased. The college and university level
was not thought fit to require any training. Pre-service training
in the Colleges of Education did not keep pace with the growth
of knowledge in the field; at the same time, some English
Language Teaching Institutes were established in collaboration
with the British Council, which remained in India even after
the British left the country. There was some importance given
to in-service training at the school level.
The Structural Syllabus prepared by the London School was
brought to India by the British Council and introduced in
Madras in 1952. The Madras English Language Teaching
(MELT) campaign, adopting a 'snowball' scheme, was planned,
with the support of the British Council, to train 27,000 teachers
at the primary level. It was a 'snowball' brought from England
(and not 'home-grown') and the MELT campaign started in
1959 melted away by 1964 in the tropical climate of Madras.
The first English Language Teaching Institute (ELTI) was
established in Allahabad in 1954 with the collaboration of the
British Council. In 1957, an All-India Seminar was held in
Nagpur, and that constituted the first move to suggest a new
syllabus for teaching English at schools at a national level. The
Structural Approach was accepted in India. The Central
Institute of English (now called the Central Institute of English
and Foreign Languages) was established in Hyderabad in 1958,
in collaboration with the British council, because of the initiative
taken by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru; its objective was to train
teachers of English, produce teaching materials and help improve
the standards of teaching English in India. The institute has
two Regional Centres at Shillong and Lucknow to serve the
needs of the eastern and northern regions. The MELT campaign
in Madras resulted in the establishment of the Regional
Institute of English, South India (RIE) in Bangalore in June
1963, with financial support from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka,
Kerala and Tamil Nadu, to improve the standards of teaching
English in the south. One more RIE was set up in Chandigarh
 The Identity Phase 127

and a number of ELTIs (more than twelve) all over India. The
Institutes were initially active, conducting teacher training
courses and producing teaching materials, but, very soon, they
became like bullocks attached to a country oil press, got into a
rut, going round and round. Most of them suffered from political
and bureaucratic interference, financial constraints, non-rational
use of resource material, money and human resources. Some
states started State Institutes of English, others appointed
Special Officers for teaching English, attached to the
Directorates of Education. District centres were also started
for the training of teachers at the school level in some states.
The result of all these developments was a 'lang-lit' controversy,
a myth that was created; those who claimed that they were
teaching 'literature', the canonical texts based on the
Macaulayan syllabus, claimed that only 'great' and 'serious'
literature should be taught and not language. They even wanted
'language studies' to be excluded from 'English studies'. Though
the situation in India and the world had changed, the Teaching
of English Literature (TELI, as it is called), continued to be a
humanistic discipline which was supposed to have ennobling,
uplifting and mind-training properties. At least, during the
colonial period (the second half of the nineteenth century and
the first half of the twentieth century), the standard canon of
English literature from Chaucer and Shakespeare, through
Milton, Dryden, Pope, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley to
Browning was read in original for its elevating and enlightening
functions. But, later, during the second half of the twentieth
century, bazaar notes replaced the original texts, and most
students read only the notes for the sake of 'getting through'
the examination. Job-seekers were in a great hurry to get a
degree somehow, and there was no time or need to read the
original texts or get ennobled. English had 'glamour' and offered
jobs; so there was a rush. Quite a few universities allowed private
candidates to appear for the M.A. examinations; many others
started correspondence courses and 'Open Universities' that
allowed people to appear without any age limit. These schemes
128 The Story of English in India

were money-spinners for the universities, and degree seekers

made use of these schemes for quick results. There was no
quality control and universities became graduate-manufacturing
factories. There were graduates all over without any professional
competence either in literature or in language. The so called
language-literature controversy weakened both. Some who did
not have even a reasonable competence in English even became
'ELT experts'. The departments of English in some universities
were divided into two—'a cell for language and a prison for
literature'. The 'lang-lit' controversy became a hot topic for
many seminars and conferences and quite a few were busy
attending conferences and workshops. The advocates of
language teaching debunked all literature teaching and theTELI
camp ridiculed the 'ELT-wallahs'. Both of them forgot to teach
English; they forgot the fact that what the students wanted
was competence in English. Some attempted a compromise,
teaching language through literature. These controversies and
experiments were confined to the departments of English in
the universities and colleges. Outside, in the employment
market, the demand for good communication skills in English
was increasing.
Even as the 'lang-lit' debate was going on, in the sixties of the
twentieth century, some marginal changes took place in the
teaching of English literature in India. American literature,
Indian writing in English and Commonwealth literature were
introduced in some universities. The demand for teaching either
American literature or Commonwealth literature did not
originate on Indian soil. Meenakshi Mukherjee in an article in
Provocations (1993) says:
American literature, for example, can hardly be regarded as having
been introduced in Indian universities out of conviction within
academic circles in the country that this was a significant body of
writing that needed to be studied. The introduction of American
literature was considerably aided by Fulbright fellowships, USEFI
sponsorship and PL 480 funding. To this day, many research
students, who choose to work in the area of American literature, do
so because better research facilities are available within the country
 The Identity Phase 129
in the form of books, journals, microfilms in the American Studies
Research Centre library (ASRC) at Hyderabad—and possibilities
of further research in the USA exist through scholarships.
(Mukherjee, 1993: 25-35)
So, only material factors like opportunities to go abroad and
better jobs in the universities influence the study of American,
Commonwealth, and the late entrants, Canadian, and Australian
literatures. The concept of the study of these literatures was
bestowed upon us by outsiders, since even now we look up to
British, American, Canadian and Australian 'experts' for
academic leadership and intellectual recognition.
Occasionally, ritualistic noises are made about the importance of
literatures in Indian languages, literatures in translation and Indian
Writing in English but the basic framework in the universities
remains the same; only cosmetic changes are attempted.
Universities in India still follow the colonial pattern of
education; it is deeply entrenched in the colonial system.
Teachers of English are not willing to change their mind-set.
They do not want to accept the changing role of English in the
world. English is no longer projected as a study of culture for
humanistic purposes; English has become an important tool of
international communication. Moreover, even after
independence, 'men, methods and materials', whether in the
teaching of literature or language, were either 'imported' or
influenced by experts from outside. The British left India but
the British Council remainedJiere; many other foreign agencies
operate in India to give a false sense of modernity. No serious
attempt was made to evolve indigenous approaches to the
teaching of English in India. There was no attempt to redefine
the goals of teaching Englishr is post-colonial India; all this
resulted in an aimless drift. There was no political will or proper
administrative skill to implement the policies outlined by the
various commissions. There was no co-ordination among the
various agencies—Central, State, the UGC, universities,
colleges and colleges of education, School Education
Directorates, CIE(FL), RIEs, ELTIs, etc.
130 The Story of English in India

4.6 National Policy on Education (1968)

However, some vague picture was evolving in the country about
the role of languages: the regional language as the medium in
the region concerned, at least at the school level, and the study
of English as a language, Hindi and/or English as the link language
and as the medium at the higher levels, and English as a library
language for reading and comprehension.
In 1967, the Government of India constituted a committee of
Members of Parliament to draft a statement on the National
Policy on Education; its aim was to have a broadly uniform
educational structure like the 10+2+3 pattern in all parts of
the country. This was done on the basis of the recommendations
of the Kothari Commission; the National Policy was meant to
provide guidance to the State Governments and local authorities
in preparing and implementing educational plans. T h e
document was published in 1968 and it is called the NPE:
National Policy on Education.
The Policy statement more or less reiterates what was said by
many in the earlier reports. This was what the document said
on the development of languages:
Development of Languages
(i) Regional languages. The energetic development of Indian
languages and literature is a sine qua non for educational and cultural
development. Unless this is done, the creative energies of the
people will not be released, standards of education will not improve,
knowledge will not spread to the people, and the gulf between the
intelligentsia and the masses will remain, if not widen further.
Regional languages are already in use as media of education at the
primary and secondary stages. Urgent steps should now be taken to
adopt them as media of education at the university stage.
(ii) Three-language formula. At the secondary stage, the State
Governments should adopt, and vigorously implement the three-
language formula that includes the study of a modern Indian
language, preferably one of the southern languages, apart from Hindi
and English in the Hindi-speaking States, and of Hindi along with
 The Identity Phase 131

the regional language and English in the non-Hindi-speaking

States. Suitable courses in Hindi and/or English should also be
available in universities and colleges with a view to improving the
proficiency of students in these languages up to the prescribed
university standards.
(iii) Hindi. Every effort should be made to promote the
development of Hindi as the link language; due care should be
taken to ensure that it will serve, as provided for in Article 351 of
the Constitution, as a medium of expression for all the elements of
the composite culture of India. The establishment, in non-Hindi
States, of colleges and other institutions of higher education which
use Hindi as the medium of education should be encouraged.
(iv) Sanskrit. Considering the special importance of Sanskrit to
the growth and development of Indian languages and its unique
contribution to the cultural unity of the country, facilities for its
teaching at the school and university stages should be offered on a
more liberal scale. Development of new methods of teaching the
language should be encouraged, and the possibility explored of
including the study of Sanskrit in those courses (such as modern
Indian languages, ancient Indian history, Indology and Indian
Philosophy) at the first and second degree stages, where such
knowledge is useful.
(v) International languages. Special emphasis needs to be
laid on the study of English and other international languages.
World knowledge is growing at a tremendous pace, especially in
science and technology. India must not only keep up with this
growth but should also make her own significant contribution to it.
For this purpose, the study of English deserves to be specially
strengthened.

4.7 The Study Group Report on the Teaching

of English (1969-71)
The most comprehensive and detailed report on the teaching
of English in India is the report of the Study Group on English
appointed by the Ministry of Education and Youth Services,
Government of India, in March 1969. It was asked to prepare
132 The Story of English in India

a working paper outlining a practical programme of action for

improving the teaching of English at both the school and
university stage. Professor V K. Gokak, former Director of the
Central Institute of English and then Vice Chancellor of
Banglofe University, was the Chairman; the other members
included Professor G. C. Bannerjee of Bombay University,
Professor Ramesh Mohan, the then Director of the Central
Institute of English, Shri C. S. Bhandari, the then Director of
the ELTI in Allahabad, and Professor Sarup Singh of Delhi
University.
The report gave a general survey of the position, followed by
sections on men, methods, materials, etc. The full text of the
report is available in Appendix III.

4.8 National Policy on Education (1986)

The next significant landmark was the National Policy on
Education and the Programme of Action 1986. This document
merely reiterates the 1968 National Policy and says:
The Education Policy of 1968 had examined the question of the
development of languages in great detail; its essential provisions
can hardly be improved upon and are as relevant today as before.
The implementation of this part of the 1968 policy has, however,
been uneven. The policy should be implemented more energetically
and purposefully.
One important step that the Programme of Action (POA)
recommended was the establishment of, rural institutions, i.e.
schools, colleges and universities in rural areas, with the
objective of idealising and promoting excellence. The
establishment of these schools, however, met with mixed
response. Thus the NEP and POA 1986 resulted in one more
report. (The National Policy of Education is also popularly
known as NEP i.e. National Education Policy.)
 The Identity Phase 133

4.9 Acharya Ramamurti Commission (1990)

The Acharya Ramamurti Commission, appointed to review the
1986 NEP and POA, submitted its report in 1990. The report
must be commended for making, perhaps for the first time, a
frank analysis of the problems in the implementation of the
three-language formula. It observed however, that whatever
the difficulties or the unevenness in the implementation, the
three-language formula had 'stood the test of time' and that it
was not 'desirable or prudent to reopen it'. About the learning
of Hindi and English, the Ramamurti Commission Report also
made the pertinent observation reiterating a statement made
by the Education Commission Report (1964-66), that the
criteria should be, not years of study, but hours of study and,
even more importantly, levels of attainment. The Ramamurti
Commission made the suggestion that the Kendriya Hindi
Sansthan (KHS), the Central Institute of English and Foreign
Languages (CIEFL) and the Central Institute of Indian
Languages in Mysore (CIIL)—the three national level
institutions charged respectively with the development of
Hindi, English and modern Indian languages—should come
together, and, in consultation with the Central Board of
Secondary Education (CBSE), the National Council of
Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and the State
governments, 'spell out modalities of ensuring uniformity in
the matter of acquisition of language competence by students
in the school system'. The objectives of such a consultation,
said the report, might be
1. Specification of the objectives of teaching different
languages
2. Specification of levels of language proficiency to be reathed
in respect of each language
3. Specification of the class from which and the duration for
which the three languages will be taught
134 The Story of English in India

On the question of the language of instruction for higher

education, again, the report made specific recommendations
about the steps to be taken to effect a smooth changeover from
English to the regional languages:
1. Production of university level books in Indian languages
2. Options to be given to students to take examinations at all
levels in the regional language media
The Ramamurti Commission also stated the need for a fresh
linguistic survey of India.

4.10 Curriculum Development Centre (1989)

One more report to be mentioned in our brief survey of policy
statements with regard mainly to the place of English in
education in India, is the report of the Curriculum Development
Centre (CDC) which was set up by the University Grants
Commission in 1987, and submitted its recommendations in
1989. The CDCs that were set up in various subjects at
different universities were given certain directions:
With increasing awareness of the importance of the learning process
a more learner-oriented or enquiry-oriented teaching method should
be introduced in the instructional system, which enables the learner
to engage himself in creative and divergent thinking, problem
solving, self-learning and to explore new avenues of communication,
productive work as well as innovation through such methods as
simulation, games, project work and the like. Accordingly, the
main thrust of the proposed curriculum should aim at shifting the
emphasis from teaching to learning, which has to be an important
element in the new approach to education. This will necessitate
re-organizing the curriculum packages, possibly in a modular form.
Greater emphasis should be placed on the student's motivation to
learn than on the teacher's ability to lecture. Further, the curriculum
should be so designed that it would make the education more
meaningful to the needs and aspirations of its beneficiaries as well
as to make it socially relevant.
(Introduction to the Report of the CDC)
 The Identity Phase 135

In A Note on the New Curriculum' the CDC Report on English

says that the new undergraduate curriculum (i.e. for the degree
classes like B.A., B.Sc., B.Com. etcetera) comprises a General
English Course and a Special English Course. It adds:
To cater to the heterogeneous tertiary level student population
(the range of linguistic competence is extremely varied since
students from both English-medium and regional-medium schools
come together at this level), the General English Course is conceived
of as comprising different units and modules suited to the different
levels of learners. The patterning of the course is such that students,
depending on their linguistic competence at the time of admission,
would not only begin their General English Programme at different
levels but also reach different levels at the time of graduation.
It is strange that no committee or commission has so far asked
the beneficiaries (i.e. the learners/students/consumers) what
they expect from the courses meant for them, what materials
they prefer, how they want to learn, what they want to learn,
how they want to be tested, etc. We just talk about learner-
centered teaching only on paper, but in practice, follow the
same 'top-down' colonial practice. The CDC report on English
too, after talking about learner-centred teaching has suggested
the streaming of only the learners on the basis of some test
(not 'standardized') administered; it fails to note that streaming
of teachers is equally important, since not all teachers have the
same competence to teach all the streams of learners. Secondly,
the concept of streaming the learners has been applied only to
the teaching of English but not to other languages like Hindi,
or the teaching of other subjects like mathematics, science
etcetera where, as everyone knows, there is a 'heterogeneous
tertiary-level student population'. In mathematics too there
are gifted students, and average and below-average students.
Moreover, the 1986 Report said that 'methodologies will be
developed for evaluation of teacher performance through self-
appraisal, through peer groups, and also by students'. This
part has been completely and conveniently forgotten and no
teacher evaluation has been implemented.
136 The Story of English in India

It is encouraging to note that the CDC report on English says

the following:
If education was to be viewed as an instrument of human resource
development then, it was argued, why an MA. Programme in English
literature (and that too, chiefly British literature) only.
It was felt that we should introduce a multiplicity of M.A. courses
in English such as MA in British Literature, MA in American
Literature, MA in Comparative Literature, MA in Creative
Writing in English, MA in Modern English Language, MA in
English Language Teaching and so on, as several universities in
Britain and America currently do. While there was a broad
agreement on this view, it was felt nonetheless that the time was
not yet ripe for such diversification—chiefly because we do not
have the human resources necessary to implement it.
Don't we have the human resources in a country that provides
human resources to even developed countries like the USA? Or
is it that we do not have the will to do it?
Central universities, deemed universities, the CIEFL, RIEs,
ELTIs, CIIL, KHS, CBSE, NCERT, Navodaya Vidyalayas,
Kendriya Vidyalayas, NCTE, autonomous colleges, Curriculum
Development Centres, Academic Staff Colleges, refresher
courses, open universities and schools, DIETs, Operation
Blackboard, Education for All, Computer Assisted Language
Learning (CALL), language laboratories, National Testing
Service, action plans etcetera, are all big names and high sounding
words.
In post-independence India, more than a hundred commissions
and committees prepared reports on various aspects of education.
The forty-second amendment to the Constitution in 1976 made
education a concurrent subject and education became the joint
endeavour of the Central and State governments. 'Experts' in
the field planned, some more theorized and theorized, unmindful
of what was happening in the field where the 'great drift' was
continuing.
 The Identity Phase 137

Teaching was (and is even now) carried on mechanically as a

ritual without any involvement whatsoever on the part of
teachers or learners; the whole exercise was (and is) examination-
degree-centred and market-driven. Teachers tried (or try) to
finish teaching the syllabus because there was (or is) a syllabus
and with great difficulty, they somehow did so (or do so).
Learners got enrolled because they wanted a degree. The lifeless
exercise continued without any crisis because of the enormous
numbers involved in the ever expanding mega industry called
education.
The low rate of literacy in India, contempt for manual work,
emphasis on humanistic and literary education at the cost of
technical and vocational education, the craze for university
degrees and government jobs, political and bureaucratic
interference in education, the increasing corruption in
educational institutions and society, malpractice in
examinations, the vastness of the country, the urban-rural divide,
the class barrier between the English-knowing and non-English-
knowing classes, the freedom that democracy allowed the market
forces, and other such factors made English a premium product.
The colonial legacy continued. The masses continued to be
masses and the classes became well-entrenched in the seats of
power. The few English-educated Indians had vested interests
in continuing the existing superficial system though it was (and
is) totally irrelevant to our socio-cultural and economic needs
and contexts; they use education in power games and as a tool
to retain their hegemony and perpetuate the power structures.
Some 'scholars' and teachers of English argue that some 'abstract
standards' should be maintained in higher education, whatever
the ground realities be, and that we have to carry on this ritual.
These ritualists do not realize that they are actually performing
the 'last ritual' and that the future generation will not pardon
them for their lack of vision and sensitivity. They continue to
teach the same old syllabus and try to produce 'graduates' but
the degrees get devalued. Free India, as a result of all these
factors, is free only politically and not educationally.
138 The Story of English in India

John P. Lewis rightly said in Quiet Crisis in India: 'Indians are

better talkers than doers, better planners than executors. This
very condition means they already have heard everything—and
tried very nearly everything, after a fashion. But too often the
execution is half-hearted, inept, or bogged down in cross-
purposes. As a result, there is a rapid deterioration of good
policy ideas; they grow shabby before their time... .'

4.11 The English Boom in India

The number of problems was increasing. In 1947, there were
only nineteen universities, by 1988-89, the number of
universities increased to 183; now there are more than 250.

1950-51 1988-89 2004

1 No. of Universities, 27 183 About

deemed to be 300
universities and
institutions of
national
importance
2 No. of colleges 695 6500 About
(excluding junior 13,000
colleges)
3 Curriculum 27
Development
Centres
4 Student 362, 325 38,82,000 About
enrolment 200 million
5 Teachers 18,700 242,000 About
(at all levels) 2 million
 The Identity Phase 139

The chart on the previous page is intended to give an idea of

the growth in the number of educational institutions and the
'development' of education—basically English education—in
post-Independence India.

Similarly, there was an enormous increase in the number of

publications in English. About one third of books published
and one fifth of all periodicals were in English; but most English
newspapers were published from urban centres and their
circulation and sale were in urban and semi-urban centres.
English literacy rate was also on the increase; according to some
estimates it was about 7%.

The two important legacies of the British rule in India actually

accelerated the English boom in the country. In the full-blown
bureaucratic network and the educational institutions within
the well-established framework of the Macaulayan system of
education, English continued to be the dominant language even
after 1947. In post-1947 India, the English-educated Indian
elite, who struggled to oust the British, have established their
power over the vast masses—a section that did not come under
the category of English-educated people. Even the urban
population that constituted the minority had migrant workers
from rural areas, labourers and other poorer sections of society
who were either illiterate or barely educated. Therefore, only a
miniscule minority of the total population controlled education
and the bureaucratic network, and through their knowledge of
English and the printed word, ruled the country. Education, as
we know, feeds into the domain of bureaucracy, which in turn
governs and regulates education. T h e full-blown Indian
bureaucratic network, which is supposed to be the largest in
the world, covers the entire socio-economic areas of governance
and planning in the form of advisory boards, committees and
commissions, ministries and various government departments,
the legislature and the judiciary, government-controlled non-
governmental organizations like educational institutions,
autonomous bodies, banks, registered companies, and trusts
140 The Story of English in India

and societies. In all these areas the 'Babu culture' got entrenched
throughout the country. Indians with the colonial mind-set
ruled the country for Indians; they were only Indian in blood
and colour. The system did not change.
These factors were responsible for a phenomenal expansion in
areas like education and mass communication; there is also an
international market for English. Mass media, information
technology and communication networks have brought about
radical changes in national and international contexts. These
developments also reinforced English and English education,
and the demand for English is increasing. Western technology,
which in turn re-introduces English as a tool of communication
in international contexts, forces India to catch up with the rest
of the world. English in India has become more international-
oriented than British-oriented.
There is also a boom in literary areas, like Indian writing in
English; the Non-Resident Indians, with their command of
English and knowledge of India, have created a market for India.
Indian culture, Indian spiritualism, yoga, herbolology, alternative
medicines like ayurveda, Indian dance and music, and even
intellectual areas like post-colonial studies have become
commodities in the international market that India sells in
English.
While all these 'explosions' were taking place in the English-
knowing world, 75 to 80 per cent of the rural and semi-urban
population, with their high rate of illiteracy, were becoming
more and more illiterate. These people, who were brought up
in the oral traditions of the social milieu, became illiterate even
in their mother tongue with the introduction of the printed
word; they became illiterate vis-a-vis English and English
education, and, worst of all, computer illiterate. They are being
pushed to the margins of the English-educated society in their
own country. The boom is booming but, at the same time, the
gap is widening, not just in socio-economic areas, but also in
 The Identity Phase 141

knowledge areas and the use of English. There is an ever-

increasing disparity in every walk of life.
Then again, there are levels and levels in the so-called English-
knowing population, there is a continuum from, 'Babu-English'
to near 'native English' among bureaucrats, educationalists,
administrators, media persons, teachers and students, business
people, writers and readers. The quantitative increase has also
resulted in a qualitative decline, which is a by-product of the
boom.
The English boom has also induced, what may be called the
imitative function—a tendency to imitate the successful
English-educated Indian elite, who in turn imitate the 'bold
and the beautiful' of the West. As a result, quite a few people
in India have started using English in areas where it is neither
necessary nor appropriate. In addition, such people have made
the code-mixed variety a fashionable register, mixing an Indian
language with English. In a way, the 'imitative use' and 'code-
mixing' are producing a language-less generation that shows a
desire to be successful in life. This mimic generation, one can
say, is neither here nor there; they do not have any Indian
language as a mother tongue, and they claim that English is
their mother tongue. Some say that they do not have any
'cultural roots' in the conventional sense but they are
comfortable only with English but, again, that English is not
'native English' in the conventional sense. These 'displaced
people' are only in urban areas. There is nothing derogatory
about displacement or the hybrid culture that is being created;
maybe they are products of attempts to create new cultures
and new languages; maybe the 'inner domain' that remained
impenetrable during many other linguistic and cultural invasions
will get weakened because of the now phenomenon called
globalization. Time alone will decide this issue.
142 The Story of English in India

4.12 The English of Indians or 'Indians'

English'
This enormous increase in the English-using population resulted
in the use of English of Indians, by Indians, for Indians. After
independence, there was not much contact with the native
users of English like there was before independence. As pointed
out earlier, cut off from the native variety and driven by
nationalist sentiments, Indians during the freedom struggle were
using English as second language, and not as a foreign language
to understand or express British culture. This shift in.focus,
combined with the large number of English-using Indians
necessitated a new variety of English with local adaptations.
By the turn of the twentieth century, according to some
estimates, there were more users of English in India, about
seventy million, than in Britain. Of course, 'their sounds range
from pukka 'Oxbridge' in communication to the obscure pidgins
of the street. A country has re-made English with many voices'
(McCrum, et al, 1986). Those voices range from Malayali
English, Tamilian English, Punjabi English, Bengali English,
Hindi English to 'standard Indian English'. In addition, there
are also a number of sub-standard varieties widely used: Butler
English, Bearer English, Baboo English, Bazaar English,
Cantonment English, and several code-mixed varieties of
English with local variations. If all these local and regional
varieties of English are included in the use of English, there are
more users of English than the users of some recognized Indian
languages like Assamese, Oriya or Punjabi. English is also the
state language of states like Nagaland and Meghalaya. English
is not included in the twenty-two officially recognized languages
of India—Assamese, Bengali, 3qdo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi (with
various dialectal variations), Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam,
Maithili, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santhali, Sindhi,
Tamil, Telugu, Urdu, Nepali, Konkani, and Manipuri (the last
three were added to the list in 1992.) English, the language
not found in the official list, is the 'associate'-official language
 The Identity Phase 143

and the language of the learned class. Linguistic nationalism

has always been a vexed issue in India, and no Indian language
was acceptable to all as a national language. After the formation
of the linguistic states, English was becoming the de facto
national language, at least of the elites.
The Indian variety (or varieties of English) is the one taught
and learnt in all educational institutions in India. The media,
managed by Indians, also uses only the Indian variety; that is
the variety used in the administration and judiciary. So, the
wide-spread use of English in India and the large number of
Indians using it has resulted in a distinct variety that may be
called 'Indians' English' or, as some people call it, 'Indian
English'.
The question came up as a result of growing nationalist
sentiments in several parts of the world. If there can be
American English and Australian English, why can't there be
Nigerian English, Malaysian English, Singaporean English,
Pakistani English, Sri Lankan English, Indian English, etcetera?
This is just like every country floating its own airlines—Air
India, Singapore Airlines, Malaysian Airlines, etc. Even small
countries like Nepal have their own airlines. Thus, national
sentiments projected several national varieties of English , both
native and non-native.
This trend was in turn supported by structural linguistics and
its branch, dialectology. In the 1960s and 1970s structural
linguistics was projected as the scientific study of languages; it
gave every variety a special status and claimed that every dialect
is as good as any other dialect; there are no inferior varieties of
language. The Western notion of language or dialect as a
discrete and well-defined entity also fanned the recognition
sought for the various national dialects. Thus, the very notion
of Indian English was, in a way, induced by Western linguistics,
supported by some Non-Resident Indian linguists working in
the West. English-knowing linguists in India trained in the
Western tradition also supported this notion. A number of
144 The Story of English in India

research projects were started and studies were undertaken to

support this claim.
Thus the following three factors greatly influence the notion
of 'Indian English'.
1. Nationalist sentiments that favoured linguistic nationalism
and the recognition for our variety of English
2. T h e growth of structural linguistics and its branch,
dialectology, which supported the notion that dialects should
also be given recognition
3. The growing number of users of English in India and their
desire to get it recognized by the West
But it is very difficult to define what is Indian or to specify
what it is that makes something Indian. As in the case of any
Indian (whose passport says he/she is an 'Indian'), Indian English
has multiple identities. There are many regional varieties of
English; only some speak a non-regional variety of English and
they aim at British or American, a native variety, as the target
and mimic it. Secondly, English is only an urban phenomenon
and it is not the language of the masses.
Even those Indians who use English in their professional or
academic discourse do not pray or make love or cry in English;
it is not their intimate language. There is no baby-talk in 'Indian
English' to make it a home language. Even those very few
metro-Indians who use English at home, prefer to listen to Indian
classical music, Hindi film songs or film songs in their own
regional language for their own 'soul' satisfaction; very few listen
to Western music. The miniscule minority that claims English
as their mother tongue in the Indian context may be, in the
words of Michael West, language-less. For the vast majority,
even of the English-educated people, English is more of a 'street
or office' language than a home language; English in India is
mostly domain-specific and register-based—for bureaucratic,
administrative, academic, legal, technical and scientific
purposes, for creative writing and journalism, and for some
 The Identity Phase 145

limited social purposes. Maybe the situation will change after

some years as a result of the opening up of the economy and
globalization.
Some scholars have projected creative writing in English as
Indian English. This cannot be the case since creative writing
in English has got a specific purpose and a market, and such a
register is not used in day-to-day life. Creative writing in English
is only one facet of the English of Indians; it is certainly not
the totality of Indian English, even if there be one.
The unidentifiable identity of English in India, in a way, is
reflected in the name of a premier institution started by the
government of India to improve the standards of English in
India. That institution is now called the Central Institute of
English and Foreign Languages. It is not called the Central
Institute of English and Other Foreign Languages because
English is not considered a foreign language in India. At the
same time, it is not considered an Indian* language and is not
included in the languages handled by the Central Institute of
Indian Languages (CIIL) nor is it included in the list of officially
recognized list of the languages of India. The status of English
in India is unique.
Those who claim an identity for Indian English as part of the
projected World Englishes will have to think of some important
issues: can there be a native speaker of Indian English like a
native speaker of a native variety like British English? How can
there be a native speaker of a non-native variety? The English
of Indians is only a local adoption. Just because there are local
adoptions, for example, we don't refer to Christianities or Islams.
Christianity is Christianity and.Islam is Islam. Similarly English
is English with local flavours. Why talk only about English?
English, a non-native variety of English that can be legitimately
called 'Indians' English' (i.e. the English of Indians) no doubt,
is a sort of link language in India, but, at the same time, it does
not, at present, link rural India with the rest of the country.
English, as a tool of communication and not as culture, is fast
146 The Story of English in India

spreading from urban to semi-urban and even rural areas. The

demand that English is also for the masses is gaining ground.
It is now estimated that about 150 million children at primary
school stage will be learning English in India. This tidal wave
and India's move away from an elitist use of English might
change the demographics of the English speaking population
in India and that of the Anglophone world as well. Then English
may truly become a second language for most Indians in all
registers without any restrictions. English, then, will be
absorbed as another language used in the Great Indian Language
Bazaar; we cannot at present predict what its identity will be.
The globalization phase of English will certainly affect the
identity of'Indians' English'. The polity and the global market
are forcing all varieties to take a neutral form and the Indian
variety is no exception to this; again, we cannot say whether
English is for the masses or for the classes; that may also emerge
in the globalized context.

Important Dates and Events

1947 India became politically independent. C. Rajagopalachari,
the first and last Indian Governor General. The Ministry
of Education was constituted in Delhi.
1948-9 University Education Commission with Dr.
Radhakrishnan as its Chairman.
1949 India's relationship with the British Commonwealth of
nations defined; India's Constitution was adopted.
1950 India became a Republic on 26 January. Constitution
grants English the status of associate official language for
fifteen years—Hindi to be spread and promoted
1952-3 Secondary Education Commission (Dr Mudaliar as
Chairman)
1953 University Grants Commission (UGC) formed, with
autonomous status granted in 1956
1955 Indian Council for Secondary Education formed
 The Identity Phase 147

1956 States Re-organization Act—States formed on the basis

of regional languages. Report of Official Languages
Commission notes that literacy in English constitutes
6.41 per cent of that of the total population; recommends
the continuation of English without time limit for all or
official purposes of the union.
1957 Kunzru Committee Report (setup by the UGC)
recommends the following: (i) the change from English to
an Indian language as the medium at the university level
should not be hastened; (ii) even when the change is made,
English should continue to be studied by all university
students; (iii) the teaching of English should be given
special attention in the pre-university class; (iv) the teaching
of English literature should be related to the study of Indian
literatures to promote critical thinking and writing in Indian
languages; (v) English be retained as a properly studied
second language at the university level
1958 The Central Institute of English, Hyderabad, established
with the cooperation of the British Council and the Ford
Foundation
1960 Committee of Experts'(Chairman: G.C. Banerjee) set up
by the UGC to examine issues involved in the teaching of
English. A Central Hindi Directorate set up for evolving
Hindi terminology, preparing dictionaries, etc.
1961 National Council for Educational Research and Training
(NCERT) formed. Report of the Working Group set up by
the UGC regarding the switch-over from English to an
Indian language as the medium of instruction recommends
that the switch-over should not be hastened and that
English should be retained as an alternative medium
1961-2 Emotional Integration Committee (Chairman: Dr
Sampurnanand); recommends that the two link
languages—English and Hindi—be effectively taught at
university level.
1962 Official Language Act. English to continue as an associate
official language even after 1965 without any time limit
148 The Story of English in India

1964-6 Indian Education Commission (Chairman: Dr Kothari)

1967 Official Languages Amendment Bill—Continued use of
English as long as non-Hindi areas want it to continue.
Study Group Report (Chairman VK. Gokak)
1968 National Policy on Education
1976 Constitutional Amendment places education on
concurrent list
1979 Draft National Policy on Education; three-language
formula to be implemented at the secondary stage in the
entire country. The target set for implementation of NPE
is envisaged: 1986-7.
1986 NPE and POP. Academic Staff Colleges started; delinking
degree requirement for employment; development of
English Language Teaching Institutes; establishment of
Navodaya Vidyalayas in rural areas for promoting
excellence; more coordination among agencies
1989 Curriculum Development Centres
1990 Acharya Ramamurti Commission set up to review NPE
and POA; endorses the 1986 report; suggests the
development of Hindi, Sanskrit, foreign languages and
English

References
McCrum, R. et al. (1986). The Story of English. New York: Viking Penguin.

Mukherjee, M.(1993). 'Certain Long-simmering Questions'. Provocations:

The Teaching of English Literature in India. Orient Longman in
association with the British Council.

Report of the Curriculum Development Centre in English. (1989). New

Delhi: University Grants Commission.

Report of the Education Commission 1964-6. (1966). Delhi: Govt of India.

 The Globalization Phase

5.1 From Agrarian Life to IT Revolution

There was a time when life was family-/village-/community-
centred. People interacted with each other in their own lingo
within their community; everybody knew everybody. Feudalism
was an accepted way of life with heads or leaders of families and
communities; local loyalty was appreciated. Some feel that life
in agrarian societies was simple and that local cultures
flourished.
Then came the Industrial Revolution with its urbanization,
capitalism and consumerism; life became more urban and
migratory, living became more repetitive with routine jobs in
factories, workshops, and offices. Men and materials constituted
the capital and the individual became a machine. Groups that
wielded power imposed their strength and power on others in
the name of modernization. The Euro-centric universe emerged
and Western notions became universal; industrial life itself
became accepted as a universal concept even in areas where
there was no industrial revolution. The world became more
and more Euro-centric and the two World Wars helped the
establishment of Western hegemony.
Then came Information Technology with, what is called, the
IT revolution; repetitive tasks were shifted to machines like
robots and computers, and human beings were left with more
time for self articulation, critical and creative thinking.
Knowledge became the capital, and the distinction between
home and office got blurred. The electronic revolution gave
birth to the post-modern world with its virtual reality. The
world started 'shrinking' and became a 'global village' in terms
of communication.
150 The Story of English in India

5.2 English as a Global Language

The English language has become a part of the IT revolution,
English, a language that came from nowhere, is set to conquer
the world. Two thousand years ago, the English language was
confined to a handful of savages, now forgotten tribes on the
shores of Northwest Europe; there was no English in England.
Today, it is used, spoken or written in some form or the other,
by perhaps 1.5 billion people around the world; of the English
users, three hundred and fifty million use it as the mother
tongue, and the rest as a foreign or second language. It is the
only language widely used from China to Peru, and more
scattered than any other language in the world. It is estimated
that there are even more users of English than of the Chinese
language, a language spoken in eight different varieties but
written in the same way by 1.1 billion people.
David Crystal's English as a Global Language (1957) gives the
estimates about users of English taken from various sources.
According to these estimates, of the 1.5 billion people who
'know' English in some form or the other, about 337 million
use English as the first language (LJ and about 350 million
use it as a second language (L2) in countries like India, Pakistan,
Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Nigeria and Sri Lanka; in
addition, there may be about 1 to 1.5 billion people who are
actively learning and trying to use English in countries like
China, Japan, Russia, and in many other countries in Europe
and South America; this will constitute about a third of the
human race. Even the European Common Market has resolved
to use, what they call 'Euro-English' as the common language
for communication. As a result of all these developments, even
the USA, the largest English-speaking nation, has only about
20% of the world's English users, and the UK about 5%.
Another kind of analysis is given by Braj Kachru, an Indian-
American linguist teaching in the USA. He classifies the
 The Globalization Phase 151

The 'three circled of the English family

varieties of English in terms of three circles. The 'inner circle'

refers to the traditional bases of English where it is used as L r
The 'outer circle' shows the earlier phases of the spread of
English (maybe due to the establishment of colonies, trade
etcetera) where the language is an important 'second language
(L2 or SL). The 'expanding circle' involves those countries
and areas where English is recognized as an important
international language and is taught and learnt as a foreign
language (FL).
The fact that English has become a global phenomenon has
resulted in a. family of its own with all kinds of varieties (or
Englishes, as some people call them) within the family; this is
unavoidable, considering the use of English all over the world.
The following figure shows the international family of English
and its members.
 ENGLISH
Cn

British English American English

and the related varieties and the related varieties

West Indies Hawaii 1I.

Africa
r
I
I Canadian Philippines t:
a-
Trinidad I
Jamaica
I I I-
Hong Singapore Malaysia East West South Anglophone Francophone
Kon
S Indian Africa Africa Africa
(Subcontinent)

Varieties of English Pakistan Bangladesh Sri Lanka USA

within India

Australia New Papua Other Midwest Southern East

Zealand New Guinea Pacific Coast
areas (New England)
like Fiji

The international family of English

 The Globalization Phase 153

This global phenomenon called English is a unique case. Even

linguists find it difficult to handle this phenomenon, the growth
of English. Are they all dialects of English, varieties of English,
or as some scholars say Englishes*. Americans do not want to
consider their English a dialect of English; they call their
English, the American Language. Others also would like to call
English by different names—Australian English, Canadian
English, Nigerian English, Indian English etcetera but they
are all English.
The information explosion in the world has happened in the
English language, and so it has become the language of the
Info-Age. English has become a global commodity like oil and
the microchip; without petrol (i.e. gas), computers and the
English language, the world will come to a halt. It is no longer
the language of one or two nations. As Huntingdon observes,
'English is the world's way of communicating internationally
and interculturally just as the Christian calendar is the world's
way of tracing time, just as the Arabic numbers are the world's
way of counting, and first as the metric system is, for the most
part, the world's way of measuring' (Huntingdon, 1996: 6).
The English language is no longer a language of national or
cultural or class identity; it has become a language of technology,
of communicational necessity.
The English language is the language of the Internet; it is
estimated that nearly eighty per cent of all websites use English
and three quarters of the world's mail, telexes and cables are in
English. The USA has far more computers than the rest of the
world combined and the USA uses English; English literacy
and computer literacy have become inseparable and
interdependent. The bulk of software is in English and all the
IT giants, like Microsoft and IBM, are based in English speaking
countries. Even countries like China and Japan—that are strong
in computer technology and hardware—are forced to use
English. The world has become not only Euro-centric but also
'Windows-centric'.
154 The Story of English in India

English has few rivals and no equals; neither Spanish nor Arabic,
both international languages, hold sway globally. Germany and
Japan may have matched the commercial and industrial rigour
of the USA, but their languages have been invaded by English.
English is the language that contains all the knowledge and
information regarding all disciplines in the world and it is easier
for anyone to learn one language, English, in order to get access
to knowledge and information, and get job opportunities
anywhere in the world. English has become the language of
capitalism in the present century. Even China has adopted a
national policy to make every student literate in English by the
year 2008. Singapore has already declared English as its common
language. The 'English tsunami' (i.e. tidal wave) is lashing
every country in the world.

5.3 The Changing Role of English

As a result of the widespread use of English, the very character
of the English language is changing; it is slowly being stripped
of its culture, class, and even race. During the nineteenth
century and the first half of the twentieth, English was more of
a culture-, race- and class-marked phenomenon. The I T
revolution has stripped the language to its bones. Now, English
is a tool for international communication. This is something
unique; normally, a language goes with its culture; since English
has become international, it is not attached to any one culture.
Americans, even before the IT revolution, detached it from
British culture and made it their own. The same thing is also
true of Australia; and a number of African and Asian countries
too, though English is used as a second language in these areas,
have made English a vehicle of their own culture. Now, English
as the language of the Info-Age has, in a way, become culture-
neutral. This very apparent neutrality of the English language
and its global market value has made it desirable and acceptable
to a vast majority of people all over the world.
 The Globalization Phase 155

English during the colonial period—in most British colonies

English literature per se—came to be regarded as a culturally
marked item whose study was confined to a particular segment
of society. Those who were 'culturally sophisticated' and
educated in English used knives and forks, learnt table manners,
used tissue paper, kept dogs as pets and often quoted the 'bards'
like Shakespeare, Milton, Shelley, Keats and others, like the
character Mr Banerji in Desani's All About H. Hatter (1948: 231-
2); he says: 'I am a member of the English Tail Waggers—I
have just arrived from dear England... I do not belong to the
backward India... Arise awake, advance. I already believe in
the European sanitation and the water-closet. Mrs Banerji and
I are also using forks and knives, which is better than eating
with sweating fingers in this summer. A decent quality of toilet
paper has already been ordered....' Even now, in most university
departments of English, only literature in English is taught as a
continuation of the colonial legacy.
Though English was introduced in colonies like India basically
for the study of literature and culture, the market value for
literary studies has gone down steeply in the present-day world.
Only effective communication skills in English—both spoken
and written—have a market value. All multinational companies,
corporations and outsourcing centres ask for competence in
communication skills and everyday use of English—not for
English literature.
English for professional purposes, like facing interviews, writing
resumes, writing reports, conducting campaigns, writing letters,
participating in meetings, seminars, conferences, and
discussions, is demanded; English for social roles and interacting
in social contexts is considered essential. Call-centres are
appointing English trainers and conducting accent-sensitizing
and accent-neutralizing programmes. The ability to
communicate one's ideas and attitudes—agreeing, disagreeing,
convincing, narrating, requesting, ordering, explaining,
apologizing—is the expected skill and not the ability to
interpret a literary text. It is communication skills in English
156 The Story of English in India

that have a worldwide market, because English has become

the language of business and commerce, trade and technology,
journalism and electronic media, the Internet and IT-enabled
services. If one is proficient in communicative English and if
one's accent is internationally intelligible, the market is wide
open. The gift of the gab in English can take one to all corners
of the world. The study of literature has become a specialized
field, and only those who are interested in it are taking it up
seriously because of their special interest in that area; the market
is only for communication skills in English.
This situation has also been aidedt>y the institutionalization of
linguistics, applied linguistics, language teaching in its various
forms like EFL (English as a Foreign Language), ESL (English
as a Second Language), TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers
of Other Languages) etc.

5.4 India at Peace with English

The changing role of English, the liberalization of the economy,
the opening up of the market and the increasing employment
opportunities for English-knowing educated Indians have made
the English language acceptable to a vast majority of Indians in
contemporary India. Familiarity with English has become India's
selling point in the international market; the 'English advantage'
that India has, thanks to Macaulay and the colonial legacy, is
being appreciated by many in India, even by the populist
politicians, who were earlier inciting their followers and the
masses to chant Angrezi Hatao, particularly in the northern parts
of India. All shades of opinion now favour the learning of English.
At last, the whole of India is at peace with English because it
has become a global language.
Earlier leaders like Rammanohar Lohia of the Socialist Party
wrote extensively in the late 1950s and the mid-60s on the
language issue, calling for the banning of English; Lohia viewed
English as a barrier to class equality and to the economic
development of the poor. Some viewed English as the 'Christian
 The Globalization Phase 157

tongue' and some as the 'devil's tongue'; some ridiculed English-

knowing Indians as Macaulay's children. That phase is over
now. Even a leader like Laloo Prasad Yadav in Bihar, maybe as
part of his populist policies, is promoting English and its re-
introduction of English in the school curriculum. Laloo's
English language policy, English for the masses, is consistent
with his anti-elite ideology. Even states ruled by communists
have changed their English language policy; the West Bengal
Government reintroduced English from standard III after
twenty two wasted years, may be they realized that they were
creating another class—an English knowing class—which is
against their ideology; so, English for all is the new slogan. A
BJP-ruled state like Gujarat has made the teaching of English
compulsory from standard V and, soon, they may introduce
English from standard III; the Government of Gujarat is
encouraging special classes for adults to facilitate the growth of
information technology in Gujarat. Many other states like
Maharashtra are trying to introduce English from the primary/
upper-primary level.
A politician like Pramod Mahajan of the BJP, when he was the
Minister for Information Technology and Communication, in a
meeting held in Bangalore to welcome the visiting British Prime
minister, Tony Blair, is reported to have said: 'We are grateful to
the British for ruling India and teaching us English, a fact the
Chinese are repenting now' {The Hindu on-line, 6 January 2002).
The change in attitude does not mean that Indians have become
less patriotic; it only shows that they have become more
pragmatic. Indians*have realized that English has become a
goldmine which is a legacy of colonial rule. They have also
realized that English is no longer a symbol of colonialism and it
has become a tool for international communication and a key to
employment in the global market. As Kumaravadivelu says:
'India has come to a painful realization that the colonial history
of the language should not be allowed to become an impediment
to the economic health of the nation' (Kumaravadivelu, 2002:
46). The English language itself has become a different tongue,
158 The Story of English in India

different from its 'colonial cousin'. It was earlier thought that

to speak a language was to adopt a culture. Now the English
language is perceived not as one with its cultural baggage but
as a culturally neutral tool of communication. The old concept—
one culture, one language—has now been replaced by a new
concept, one culture and more than one language. Since English
is used all over the world people in different countries have
made it a medium to express their own cultures. Writers like
R. K. Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao, Arundhati Roy and
several others in India, Chinua Achebe in Nigeria, and scores of
others have effectively used the English language to portray
socio-cultural nuances and cultural identities that are totally
different from the culture of the West. This culture—a free
concept of language that has freed English from the narrow and
limiting view of language-culture connection—in a way, has made
the English language more acceptable to the vast majority of
people who are learning and using English all over the world.
Now, people realize that modernization and learning English to
communicate do not mean Westernization, and one need not
lose one's identity by learning English.
English literature, which was once central to the cultural
enterprise of the Empire, has lost its hold on English as a
technology-oriented communicative tool. Unfortunately, the
university system in India is not sensitive to the changing needs
of society outside; departments of English in universities and
colleges have not cashed in on the changes that are taking place
in the world. As pointed out earlier, even during the struggle
for India's independence, departments of English in universities
and colleges continued to be 'colonial islands' while the rest of
India was using English differently for a different purpose.
Similarly, when the outside world is using English for
international (intranational in certain cases) and intercultural
communication and technological purposes, colleges and
universities in India still follow the Macaulayan syllabus and
teach texts like The Spanish Tragedy (sixteenth century), Everyman
in His Humour (1596), The Alchemist (1610) or some other ancient
 The Globalization Phase 159

text that neither the teachers nor the students understand or

are interested in. What shall we say? Is it tragical or comical?
The situation in the world outside is very different; English for
communication is the mantra everywhere. Outsourcing centres,
call centres, medical transcription centres, bookkeeping for
various multinational companies in different parts of the world,
software development etcetera—thousands and thousands of
jobs are created all over India, in the big towns, and from the
big towns spread to small towns. In a city like Bangalore alone,
it is said there are about 75,000 persons employed in call centres,
many more of which are being set up in other towns; outsourcing,
it is said, is going to create millions of jobs in the near future
for English-knowing educated Indians.
It is true that economic globalization and the opening up of
the global market are bringing the global market particularly to
India, and, in a big way, a knowledge of English is helping this
process. Some people argue that India is providing 'cheap'
skilled labour to multinationals and rich countries; the whole
of India is becoming a 'sweat shop' for developed countries and
Indians are only 'techno-coolies'. It is pointed out that in
outsourcing centres a trained Indian can be employed for about
US$400-500 a month, whereas an American with the same skills
will demand about US$4000-5000; the multinationals employ
English-knowing trained Indians to reduce costs and maximize
their profit. At the same time, it can also be argued that by
taking up a call centre job a computer-trained Indian gets
about 10,000 to 15,000 rupees a month in India, though
working for twelve hours, even in night shifts; otherwise, he/
she will be unemployed. An income of Rs.10,000-15,000 is
helpful in the Indian context. It is also said that working in
call centres for twelve hours, particularly at night, deprives
young people of their social life, and that creates physiological
and psychological problems. That is why most young people
do not stay for long in call centres and BPOs (Business Process
Outsourcing Organizations); they have to work for more than
twelve hours in most companies. In spite of all these problems,
160 The Story of English in India

IT-enabled services have reduced educated unemployment in

India and provided the motivation for becoming computer-
literate and English-literate.
In addition, English teaching in India is becoming a big
business. Every street corner has institutes for spoken English
and grammar; many call centres are appointing English trainers
to train people in the appropriate use of English, style polishing,
accent sensitising, accent neutralizing, English fluency, and
cross-cultural communication; medical transcription centres are
also appointing English teachers. People who are good at spoken
and written English are absorbed in the media and print
journalism.
Highly qualified Indians are teaching English in many parts of
the world—the Middle-East, Africa, Hong Kong, Singapore,
Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, and even the USA and the UK.
English is being exported from India. It is true that competent
and trained Indians are available at a 'cheaper rate' but
considering the total population of India and the rate of
educated unemployment in the country, one can readily say
that computer technology, computer-enabled services and
English have proved to be a boon to many English-educated
Indians.
Moreover, the English language has created a market for Indians
and Indian 'products' all over the world. Whether it is yoga,
herbal medicines, Indian spiritualism or Indian writing in
English, there is a global market for these products, provided
they are marketed in English. Indian gurus who use English
have become globetrotters. India has become a product in the
world market and, it is said, India will soon become an economic
superpower, thanks to English. It is also reported that many
foreigners are coming to India to have the computer-software
experience, for medical treatment, to learn yoga, and even for
employment, all because India speaks English.
 The Globalization Phase 161

5.5 Indians' English: An Outline

It is not only the attitudes and contexts that have changed,
but also the content and style of the English that Indians use.
In the pre-transportation phase, the interaction in English was
between the Indian rulers with their politicking, intrigues and
internal feuds for maintaining territorial control, and the British
merchants who were trying to become colonizers. This
interaction mainly related to political usurpation of the Indian
States which gave the EIC the territorial control to trade, which
induced the use of English for some restricted written
functions—like writing petitions, commercial dealings,
advertisements by Indian merchants etcetera—that were earlier
performed in Persian. The inadequate knowledge of English,
the ostentatious Persian style with its royal formality, and the
deeply entrenched feudal mentality resulted in an ornate style
in the earlier forms of the English of Indians; this ornate style
is found even today in written correspondence, especially in
the official correspondence of Indians using English . This
register may be called the 'Lordship Register'. Expressions
like 'your most friendly letter', 'your most humble servant, ' 'I
humbly request your honour', 'your Lordship has written', 'your
honour will be pleased to know', and such other 'friendship and
humbleness' vocabulary were found in this register. During the
transportation phase the political domain-weakened; the British
bureaucracy usurped the powers of the native rulers and,
consequently, the communication between the Indian rulers
and the EIC diminished. Instead, there was more
communication within the domain of bureaucracy, between
Indians and the British bureaucracy. The higher officials of the
EIC, with their clear administrative policy, formed the
bureaucracy. Missionary schools, private schools, and District
English schools, started by the EIC began to provide English

For a detailed study see Krishnaswamy and Burde (1998): The Politics of
Indians' English: Linguistic Colonialism and the Expanding English
Empire. New Delhi: OUR
162 The Story of English in India

education at the school level. This also strengthened the link

between an English education and the British bureaucracy. The
use of English in th£ print media and in literary writing started
earlier than formal English education in India. The urban,
'minority-use' of English started during this period: English was
then learnt and used only as a foreign language in India.
There was a higher degree of comprehensibility in bureaucratic
writing during this phase; the availability of English education
and changes in the policy of the EIC, resulting in the opening
of bureaucratic jobs to Indians, and the increasing bureaucratic
correspondence with the British bureaucracy firmly established
the 'bureaucratic register'. The print media was used to publish
essays, annual reports of colleges, other write-ups, and
commercial advertisements. One can say that the major domains
of the use of English in India, which are documented throughout
the history of English in India, emerged during the
transportation and consolidation phase. The domains were:
bureaucracy, education, print-media communication,
commercial and some intellectual/literary writing. Even today
one can see mostly the bureaucratic style of writing with its
officialese in Indians' English.
English education, during this phase and in the consolidation
phase, enabled Indians to use English to get a job in the
Government. The British bureaucracy created economic and
administrative needs that were to be met through the use of
English. English education, besides feeding into the
bureaucratic domain, also induced communication needs in the
print-media. There was not so much of an ornate style in the
English of Indians but it used a number of bureaucratic
expressions, fixed phrases, and a large number of passive
constructions. Expressions like the following were widely used:
1. Beg to inform the Ladies and Gentlemen
2. Honoured and Dear Sir
3. My Lord, Humbly reluctant as the natives of India are...
 The Globalization Phase 163

4. Respect will be paid

5. I beg leave to assure you that
6. My opinion having been desired
7. Respectfully solicited
8. The public are hereby5informed
9. To favour them with your company
10. May allow insertion to my report
The style was very ostentatious with archaic words and odd
expressions. Some Indian themes like a 'Hindustanee Maid'
were used in creative writing. Raja Rammohan Roy's letter
addressed to Lord Amherst in 1823 (given in Appendix I) is a
good example of serious intellectual writing during this phase.
The Crown took over from the EIC and the British Government
with its various departments and bureaucracy gradually got firmly
established in the subcontinent; universities were established.
This resulted in the expansion of the use of English and its
'show-off value in society. English became the language of the
Government and the Indian 'subjects' accepted the language
of the rulers. This resulted in the stabilization of English and
its further expansion and dissemination. English, as in the
previous phase, was learnt and used only as a foreign language
and communication was between English-educated Indians and
the British bureaucracy.
All the major domains and features observed in the earlier phases
became stable during the consolidation phase; the restricted
nature of the domains in the use of English got stabilised but
there was expansion within the domains because there were
more Indians using English. There were more compartments
within the bureaucracy and more departments were formed;
more Indians were appointed at various levels. The British
controlled the system through the written word.
164 The Story of English in India

Indo-Anglian writing was emerging as a literary activity and there

were debating societies and associations formed by English-
educated Indians, particularly in cities like Calcutta. Socio-
intellectual activities in English were on the increase. But the
English language did not interact with the 'finer and inner'
areas of life like religion, arts, social customs etcetera; moreover,
English was confined to urban areas and did not make any impact
on the rural/native civilization of the subcontinent. Even in
the urban areas, Indians had the problem of accommodating
English with its socio-economic advantages with the native
socio-cultural patterns. Thus, the bureaucratic domain became
a typical 'module' for the impersonal style of communication
and this 'modular function' is an important pointer to the
development of English in Indians even in the later phases.
The domains during this phase were: bureaucracy, education,
print-media communication, commercial, socio-intellectual, and
literary.
Within the domains mentioned above, there was a competent
handling of English by the English-educated Indians. There
was more officialese but English was handled with more
flexibility. English officers were addressed as 'Honoured and
Dear Sir'; other fixed expressions like 'we humbly desire', 'will
you kindly send and oblige', 'you are requested to appear',
'anything and everything', 'my most sincere congratulations',
'hoping you will live long', 'hereby informed', 'thanking you in
anticipation' etcetera were common. Adjective piling was very
frequent in the written English of Indians. Some odd expressions
like 'bosom of families', 'party feeling' etcetera were also found.
There were also amusing specimens like the one given below.
DearSir,
I am arrive by passenger train at Ahmedpore station and my belly is
too much swelling with Jack-fruit. I am therefore went to privy.
Just I doing the nuisance, that guard making whistle blow train to
go off and I am running with lotah in one hand and Dhotie in the
next when I am fall over and expose all my shookings to man,
female, woman on platform. I am got leaved at Ahmedpore station.
 The Globalization Phase 165

This is too much bad. If passenger go to make dung, that dam

guard no wait trainfiveminutes for him. I am therefore pray your
honour to make bigfineon that guard for public sake. Otherwise I
am making report to papers.
Your faithful servant,
OkhilCh.Sen
This letter was very effective! It led to the introduction of
toilets in trains in the year 1891.
More Indian themes started appearing in literary writing in
English; A Hymn to Surya' by A.M. Kuta is an example; and
more are found in The Golden Treasury of Indo-Anglian Poetry
(1828-1965) edited by V K. Gokak. The piling of adjectives
and a verbose style of writing were prominent but some of that
might have be part of the literary strategy.
During the Dissemination phase (1904-1947), factors like the
two World Wars, English going international, the intense political
activity in India, the freedom struggle and the Swadeshi
Movement changed the role and the character of English in
India. During the Swadeshi Movement, English was gradually
becoming more of a second language and being used for
communication between Indians from different parts of the
subcontinent. If stability was the main feature of the phase
between 1830 and 1904, 'detachability' must be stated aa the
important feature during this period. In the third phase, Indians
seemed to have taken a definite stand on the role of English in
India for certain purposes, but their identity remained rooted
in their cultural heritage; in that sense, English in India was
'detached' from the polemics of cultural confrontation and was
treated as one 'module' in the multilingual subcontinent,
according to the needs of the users. Indians had handled many
languages in the past—Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, Urdu; they
handled many religions and cultural forms; in the same way, and
by extending the same strategy, Indians made English a 'domain-
restricted' language in India.
166 The Story of English in India

With more and more Indians using English, more Indian

entrepreneurs in business, with the number of English
newspapers increasing, the use of English in all the domains
increased. Political activity involving national leaders and
members of political parties and political awareness made the
print media powerful. Indian writing in English—prose, poetry,
fiction, non-literary, intellectual and academic writing—became
well established; publishing centres were started in cities like
Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi, and Madras. India-induced writing
was on the increase.
The number of Englishmen as interlocutors even in domains
like bureaucracy and education reduced on account of the
quantitative expansion in the use of English. More and more
Indians were using English among themselves even in social
domains. The patriotism-induced use of English increased
during this phase.
The general domains like bureaucracy, education, print-media,
commercial communication, intellectual and literary writing and
social communication continued in this phase, with their specific
features; there were also other allied areas like the judiciary and
legislature and several other departments with their own
-department specific registers. Consequently, the number of
mistakes and unacceptable and odd expressions also increased:
'I want to go myself from the village', 'to do bad things in village',
'they determined to kill my son', 'the train was well filled with
passengers' 'I'll be highly obliged if you will kindly give me
scope in your office', 'thanking you in anticipation', etc.
A number of expressions from Indian culture were used in
Indians' English:
Bengali month ofChaitra, Puja or Worship-festival, nautch or dance,
tithi or lunar date; and other expressions like 'deityship', 'drums
beating', 'hook-swinging festival', etc.
Poems like 'Sita-Rama, Sita-Rama HoP started using the Indian
linguistic repertoire to create to an 'Indian rhythm of the Indian
milieu'. Indo-Anglian literature was getting more established.
 The Globalization Phase 167

After India's independence, during the identity phase, the full-

blown bureaucratic network, a legacy of the British, was fully
taken over by the English-educated Indians. An institutionalized
English education within the framework of the Macaulayan
system, particularly in higher education, started producing more
and more English-educated Indians to be fed into the other
domains. The Indian elite, who struggled to oust the British,
established their power over the vast majority of the masses.
There was a phenomenal expansion in areas like education and
mass communication. With the increase in the national and
international market for English in print as well as the electronic
media, and in many other domains like the commercial and the
social, there was a great demand for English-educated people
and Western technology. India was forced to catch up with the
rest of the world and English in India became more
'internationally ortented' than 'British oriented'.
There was also a boom in literary areas like Indian writing in
English and intellectual areas like Indian culture, philosophy,
yoga, herbology, etc. and 'India' was becoming a fast-selling
commodity, particularly during the turn of the twentieth
century.
While this 'explosion' was taking place in the English-knowing
world, 75 per cent of the rural population remained illiterate.
The gap was widening in socio-economic areas and there was
more migration from the rural areas to the big cities. There
was a (de)cline in the intelligibility of English in each domain
with the ever-increasing number of users; the widespread use
of English also resulted in several regional and local varieties of
English like Malayali English, Bengali English, South Indian
English, Filmi English, etcetera; where there is a quantitative
increase, a decline i*n quality is unavoidable. With the advent of
the IT revolution, the demand for English has increased and
the movement 'English for the masses' is gaining ground;
expansion is taking place without the proper infrastructure—
trained teachers and effective materials—but the 'English
invasion' is taking place. English is here, there, everywhere in
168 The Story of English in India

India. One can come across all varieties of English in India,

from a 'near native variety' to the 'Bazaar variety', from the
standard variety to amusing specimens.
English, in certain areas, is displacing other languages and
cultures. In the case of some sections of the urban population,
one can say a hybrid culture has been created; these 'displaced
sections' of the urban population—linguistically and
culturally—are living in their 'own settlements', some call them
the 'mini-West', 'mini-'Americas', etc. Non-Resident Indians,
who are relocating to India for various reasons, are also adding
to these settlements.
Still, there is an 'inner core' domain in many parts of India that
remains intact. The modular strategies of the common people
enable them to keep their identities in a 'multi-modular'
framework. This 'multi-modular cultural and linguistic osmosis'
has been variously described by many as 'segmented identities',
'fluid identity', 'mosaic identity', 'salad-bowl arrangement' etc.
The essence of it all is that there are several identities for any
Indian. These identities, in the form of 'modules', have been
developed over centuries as part of the evolution of the
civilization of the subcontinent. For example, one can, according
to one's passport, be an Indian, and at the same time, an
inhabitant of Bengal and, by religion, a Muslim, speak Bengali
as the mother tongue (Lj), use Urdu and Arabic as the languages
of religion, use Hindi in local, business, and English in social
and international circles without any conflicts; this 'multi-
modular' operation comes naturally to most Indians. One can
be a Brahmin by birth and pray in Sanskrit and perform the puja
in the morning, go to university and teach English literature in
class, talk to one's friends in Hindi, give instructions to the
servants in Tamil, and debunk English literature as alien and
immoral later in the club while praising Tamil and Sangam
literature. Most Indians operate within various 'modules' and
the 'English life of Indians' is one of these modules. That is
how, in a complex multiverse like India, one handles the various
languages, cultures and religions and restrict the place of each
 The Globalization Phase 169

to a particular domain. This happens, in the case of English too

and for most middle and upper class Indians. English is a module
for it has to be used in certain areas; the English of Indians is
neither a foreign language nor a second language nor a dialect of
English—it is a modulect, a 'lect' that works as a module.

5.6 English and Indian Languages

The interaction between English and Indian languages has had
its impact on both. The fascination of Europeans with India—
its people and culture—resulted in a substantial adaptation of
a number of Indian words and phases into English, right from
the beginning. Words like rajah, curry, brahman, bungalow, coolie,
pundit, juggernaut, jute, toddy, jungle, chaukidar, verandah, etcetera
had entered English even in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries. Later, the English bureaucrats kept adding more and
more words to their vocabulary, words like guru, shanti, chuntney,
puja etc. Even after the British left India, the English-speaking
world keeps borrowing words from Indian languages, words like
bandh, hartal, mantra, karma, avataar, kundalini, maya, ahimsa,
ananda, bhagawan, bhakti, devi, dkarma, dvani, ghee, hathayoga, kali,
maha, moksha, mudra, muni, ojas, rasa, sadhu, tapas, veda, Kamasutra,
etcetera are commonly used even in international English. The
Oxford English Dictionary lists about 1000 words of Indian origin
and some dictionaries list more than 2000 words in their
supplements. 'India' going international, and economic
globalization have also added to the liberal borrowing of words.
Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Anglo-Indian Words, compiled by
Colonel Henry Yule and A.C. Burnell and published in 1886, is
a classic that pioneered the recording of the mingling of the
two cultures during the colonial period. English is not the only
borrower and it was not one-way traffic. English has influenced
all the Indian languages in a big way. More than a thousand
words are used in every Indian language as though they are words
native to them, particularly in areas where modern technology
matters most. Even in rural areas words like bulb, switch, motor,
car, lorry, bus, auto, train, pump, cinema, court, school, college, office,
170 The Story of English in India

stamp, letter, e-mail, post-office, bank, collector etcetera are used by

people as part of their mother tongue. With more and more
technological invasion, the English vocabulary is on the increase:
TV, computer, internet, telephone, STD, ISD, cable, electric, and many
more. These words from English are becoming basic to Indian
languages. English has also affected many literary forms in
Indian languages. English is responsible for creating literary
forms like the short-story and the novel etcetera in Indian
languages. In the electronic media, many programmes like soaps,
talk-shows, and quiz contests are modelled on programmes in
the channels in the Western media. It has become a two-way
process—the Indianization of English and the 'Englishization'
of Indian languages. This is a continuous process that was
accelerated by the onset of globalization; it is getting more and
more rigorous with more Indians going abroad and some Indians
coming back to India. At present, even the rural areas, under
the influence of films and the electronic media, are being
affected by the English wave. English is truly becoming one
more tongue through which all Indians can express their multi-
facted culture.

5.7 Neo-colonialism, Globalization and

English
Globalization, the spread and impact of English, has given birth
to another kind of colonization. Colonialism and power have
different avataars or manifestations. Power need not always be
political power; it can be money power, military power, muscle
power, language power, discourse power, etc. Similarly
colonialism and imperialism can take the form of cultural
colonialism, linguistic imperialism etcetera popularly called
McDonaldization, Coca-colonization, media-militarization, etc.
The Empire is gone but the imperialism of the West is there in
several incarnations. Earlier, the British claimed that the sun
never set on the British empire; but, now, as the linguists, Quirk
and Widdowson, claim, 'English is the language on which the
 The Globalization Phase 171

sun does not set, and whose users never sleep'. The Empire of
the English language is well established; the continuing
dependence on Western content in independent India,
particularly in higher education, has made the country depend
on 'received knowledge' in every aspect of life. The colonial
mind-set is well set.
Colonial rule has crippled the thinking of many Indians; Western
values are getting so deeply rooted in India that most educated
Indians are willing to get enlightened only by the West. Like
in the case of 'received pronunciation', whether it is the
therapeutic effect of yoga, the nutritive value of rice and yoghurt
or the medicinal value of neem or turmeric, Indians will accept
them as 'scientific' only after some Western 'authority' or
'experiment' authenticates them as good and effective;
otherwise they are not taken seriously. In linguistics, one has
to quote Bloomfield, Saussure or Chomsky in order to be
credible; in language teaching, it has to be Michael West, Palmer,
Widdowson or Brumfit and in grammar teaching 'Wren and
Martin'; in literary criticism, it has to be I. A. Richards, E R.
Leavis, T. S. Eliot or Derrida. Even to know that in India there
was a great linguistic tradition, one needs a William Jones or a
Max Mueller; to know that India had a great philosophy of
language, one needs a Harold Coward to tell us that there are
parallels between Derridian deconstruction and Bhartrhari's and
Nagarjuna's theory. Even when one says that his/her articles
are published in 'international' journals, it only means journals
published in the West; the term 'international' has come to
mean 'West'. In every branch of knowledge, as Macaulay said,
'the relative position is nearly the same, be it economic or
physical theory, mathematics or medicine'; all wisdom is, and
comes from, the West. India has become a great consumer
market—for products as well as ideas—and Indians have become
great consumers, in every sense of the term.
Macaulay's mission was accomplished. He, very successfully,
created a class of 'trishankoos', who are 'rootless,' language-
less or, in other words, global citizens and 'netizens'. Territorial
172 The Story of English in India

colonization is gone but minds are colonized; Indians in

independent India even now privilege Western traditions, values
and literature, as though our literatures 'are of less value than
the paper on which they are printed was, while it was blank'
(Macaulay). Even today, in the departments of English in
Indian universities, most teachers of English think that Hamlet
and Othello are greater than Indian classics; and they successfully
reproduce what Aristotle said about a tragic hero and the tragic
element. They do not even care to know that Ravana was a
great tragic hero in the Ramayana or Kama in the Mahabharata.
Those who know English are ignorant of Vernacular*' literatures
(be it in Sanskrit or Tamil or in any other Indian language) and
those who are 'Pundits' (a term with a contemptuous
connotation) in 'native' literature cannot express their ideas in
English. This 'great divide' or 'communication gap' created by
the colonial rule is much worse than the partition of the
subcontinent and the gap is yet to be bridged.
The soul of India is kept prisoner. As N'gugi wa Thiong'o, the
Kenyan novelist and key thinker in the study of linguistic
oppression, says:
A new world order that is no more than a global dominance of neo-
colonial relations policed by a handful of Western nations... is a
disaster for the peoples of the worjd and their cultures... . The
languages of Europe were taught as if they were our own languages,
as ifAfrica had no tongues except those brought there by imperialism
bearing the label MADE INEUROPE. (Thiong'o, 1993: 35)
What he says of Africa is also true of India:
In my view language was the most important vehicle through which
that power (the power of the colonizers) fascinated and held the
soul prisoner. The bullet was the means of physical subjugation.
Language was the means of spiritual subjugation. (Thiong'o, 1986)
According to him, the 'cultural bomb' is the biggest weapon
that annihilates people's belief in their our languages, in their
unity, in their capacity and ultimately in themselves. The same
disaster was predicted by Horace Wilson in 1836.
 The Globalization Phase 173

It is good to examine critically some of the notions that are

projected as the emerging new world order. For example, English
is projected as the language of the new world; but no one says
that only a tiny fraction of the population of most countries in
the world, including those that are described as the ones in the
'outer-circle'—in Asia and Africa—actually use English. As
Phillipson says:
There are many terms in the sociology of language that are grounded
in implicit, covert, value judgments. We need to be constantly
vigilant in reflecting on the ideological load of our concepts and
how they relate to, and probably serve to underpin and legitimate a
hierarchical linguistic order. (Phillipson, 2000)
The term 'global English' is a product of the process called
globalization. Ideally and ideologically 'globalization' should
mean delocalization and denationalization. However, notions
like 'nation' and 'patriotism' are so deep rooted in the minds of
people that it is very difficult to visualize a denationalized
world; only a thinker like J. Krishnamurti can say that 'when
there is intelligence, then nationalism, patriotism, which is a
form of stupidity, disappears' (Krishnamurti, 2000).
People cannot easily give up these notions. So, what is happening
in the name of globalization is only economic globalization, that
too the creation of an international market for a few
multinational companies. This process is, in turn, helped by
English, the 'global language'.
Another important notion that has been built up by the English-
using 'inner circle' nations is the myth called the 'native
speaker'. This myth is one of the pillars of the new English
empire and of globalization. In Saussurian linguistics, there are
two important concepts—langue and the 'native speaker', who
is the privileged normalizing subject. In structural linguistics,
monolingualism is taken as the norm and not bi/multilingualism.
The native speaker must be a monolingual. Secondly, only orality
is taken as qualification for the native speaker since speech is
taken as primary in structural linguistics.
174 The Story of English in India

T h e question 'who is a native speaker?' has not been

satisfactorily answered. Medgyes (1994) shows that all the
criteria that have been proposed to describe/define a native
speaker are fuzzy. He argues that a child born in an English-
speaking country, who acquired the language during childhood
can move into a non-English speaking country and forget the
language acquired. It is also difficult to specify the duration of
childhood—will it be nine or thirteen years? What about a child
in a family where the mother speaks English and the father
Hindi/French/Chinese? What about a native speaker of English
who cannot read and write the language effectively? Such a
person will literally be a speaker and not a writer or a reader.
Paradoxically when we talk about teaching a foreign/second
language, four skills—listening, speaking, reading and writing
(LSRW)—are considered important but, while formulating the
concept 'native speaker', reading and writing are left out. Can
we consider an illiterate or semi-literate person, whose linguistic
competence is only partial, a native speaker? What about creative
writers like Joseph Conrad, Wole Soyinka, Nabokov or even
Salman Rushdie and Naipaul? Are they native speakers?
According to Noam Chomsky a native speaker is an abstraction
or an ideal because only an ideal native speaker-hearer relationship
that too in a homogeneous speech community can be described. What
is real cannot be described because of too many variables and
what is ideal is an abstraction. So, the ideal native speaker ^\\\ be
a 'cultural monster'.
Moreover, there are bilingual and multilingual communities
where different languages have different functions; in some
cases, learners acquire two or three languages simultaneously
as 'native languages' and it is difficult to say which one is the
first language. Such linguistic richness is an asset and it becomes
part of the user's linguistic competence. Neither the native
speaker nor the community need be monoglot. In India, there
are a number of bilingual communities. How do we characterize
bi/multilinguals? Can there be bi/multilingual native speakers?
If we talk about World Englishes and different varieties of
 The Globalization Phase 175

English, can there be native speakers of non-native varieties of

English? Will the native speakers of the native varieties of
English accept the linguistic intuition of an Indian speaker of
English as valid?
The West, particularly the English-speaking world like the USA
and the UK, wants to keep the multi-billion dollar global
English-teaching industry in the hands pf a small group of Anglo-
American native speakers of English; their English alone is
'standard' and it is race/class marked. Th&t English is English
with a capital E and all other non-native users of English use
english, with a lower case ' e \ since they are 'children of lesser
gods'. Reyathi Krishnaswamy rightly argues that the 'native-
speaker of English, however illiterate or however unintelligent
he/she may be, has become the unquestionable norm by which
all non-native speakers are judged as either successful or failed
mimics' (Krishnaswamy, 2001). The hegemony of the native
speaker of English is felt all the time by non-native users of
English.
This hegemony is called 'linguistic globalization' and there is a
huge volume of literature on English as the world language.
But, there is an alarming absence of literature on the linguistic
genocide that is taking place all over the world and in India. Many
languages are disappearing from the face of the earth as the
English tidal wave sweeps away not only the other languages
but also their cultures—minority languages are being slowly
eliminated. A large number of words from English, even where
there are words in the local languages, are mixed and used as
part of the Indian languages and code-mixing has become
fashionable. In the near future, some languages used by small
(or even big) communities will either disappear or take a
different, distorted form. 'Global English' has endangered local
languages and cultures.
Cultural globalization will then be the inevitable outcome of
economic and linguistic globalization; already, in some sections
of the population, the Indian social fabric is changing. The
176 The Story of English in India

cultural values, family relationships, respect for elders, respect

for knowledge, ability to be happy even without material comforts,
and philosophical and religious values of Indians are being replaced
by 'foreign' values; it is more and more one-way traffic—from the
West to the East. The electronic media is also helping this process
and English is the language of 'pop culture'.
It is very difficult to imagine the magnitude of the pressures
on the ordinary people of the vast subcontinent, as vast and as
varied as Europe, and understand the multi-faceted
phenomenon called neo-colonialism. A vast area deeply
entrenched for centuries in the oral tradition and religious
practices was converted into an 'illiterate' society by print-
capitalism, the IT revolution and English; the written word
established its colony and power over the 'voice' of the people
and education was equated with literacy. The masses have been
exploited by various groups through a written constitution,
written rules and regulations, written records—all designed and
evolved by the Macaulayan clan—call them 'urban elites',
'leaders', 'politicians', 'bureaucrats' 'babus', 'Euro-Indians' etc.
English speaking 'Brown Sahibs' are spread all over the county;
they have taken over the 'masks of conquest' from the British
and have painted them with various nationalist colours and
patterns. They are there in education, in government offices,
in the judiciary, in the media, in the administration, in politics—
thinly distributed but visible and exercising their domination over
others, over the 'ordinary people', who do not know the 'chosen
tongue'. The invasion of the satellite network, the emerging
pop-culture, the all consuming consumerism, and such other
onslaughts—all in the 'global language'—are taking their toll
all over the country. How many will be swept away and how
many will become 'refugees', we cannot say.
The people of the Indian subcontinent have handled many such
waves, both linguistic and cultural; they know how to contain
the onslaught of these waves and live in peaceful coexistence.
They did it earlier in the case of Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic and
Urdu and also handled several cultures and religions, absorbing,
 The Globalization Phase 177

adapting, and containing their operational field. That is why

there are layers and layers in the complex civilization of the
Indian subcontinent. But the English phenomenon is unique.
The earlier waves came with religious and cultural labels like in
the case of Sanskrit and Persian. The 'English tsunami' has
come with an economic incentive backed by modern technology
and in a global sweep; this did not happen earlier. Employment
opportunities throughout the world, the media and Internet-
levelling, and the status that goes with a command of English
are making English a sought-after commodity. Even in the
villages in India, what is called the 'mummy-daddy' culture
along with a sprinkling of other words from English is prevalent.
So, it is very difficult to predict and say how far Indians can
handle the English wave and preserve their 'own' languages and
cultures. Maybe they will convert English into one of the many
tongues of their motherland and express their 'Indianness' in
English, or get converted; at least some sections of the
population will. Time alone can decide this, and the English
phenomenon is going to be a challenge to the strategies of the
people of the Indian subcontinent.

5.8 Teaching English in Post-Independence

India: A Search for Alternatives
The onslaught of English can be met if proper planning is done
to handle the teaching of English in post-Independence India.
The 'Great Indian Renaissance' can be effected in English and
the English language and Western knowledge can be turned to
our advantage, if we chisel out a new pattern of education to
suit a country like India instead of allowing market conditions
to take over education. It is well within the power and purpose
of the Indian people to fashion a country of their choice, if
English can be used as a servant and not allowed to be the
master. Local wisdom can be activated in the search for
alternatives; the intuition of the 'Great Indian People', their
traditions and practices, can be used to get ideas and inspiration
in planning an alternative educational system.
178 The Story of English in India

An educational system, as it is obvious, should meet the

aspirations of the people and, at the same time, change society;
education must become an instrument of social change and
truly educate people. No doubt the systems must produce
highly competent professionals—doctors, engineers, managers,
teachers, artisans etcetera—but, at the same time, it must also
train them to critically examine and question, in a creative way,
'professionalism without social commitment'. This is a dual
responsibility the components of which, though they appear to
be incompatible, are in fact, complementary. T h e social
component is to make the professionals as conscious as possible
of the dangers of professionalism without any social
responsibilities. In other words, education must be market-
oriented as well as society-oriented. The Consciousness Raising
component (CR), which was missing in the colonial plan of
education, is to remove 'illiteracy' among the literates and make
them truly educated, contemplative, and thinking citizens. The
colohial pattern of education, which was meant to promote and
protect the interests of the rulers, was a transplanted model
that was implanted in India without taking into account the
earlier systems of education that were 'native' in character; the
colonial system was not a continuation of the older systems
but had different aims and objectives. It was an imported model
that conditioned us to live on received theories and received
knowledge.

The decolonized system of education should encourage a critical

contemplation of the impact* of European education, cultural
colonialism, linguistic imperialism and globalization, and expose
the imperialistic designs hidden in the imported, alien model.
On the one hand, it must encourage a searching scrutiny of our
dependence on Euro-centric approaches to education and life,
and free the mind from the colonial cussedness that is so very
deeply rooted in our thinking, so that the Indian mind can come
out of its 'cultural amnesia'. On the other hand, the new system
of education must reactivate and recognize the knowledge
systems of the subcontinent and make them relevant and
beneficial to our present-day world; it must enable society to
 The Globalization Phase 179

restore destroyed confidence and character so that the deep-

rooted inferiority complex in Indians is shed.
The alternatives must strike a balance between romanticizing
our past and condemning all that is modern; we don't have to
assume that all that is modern is Western and we need not ape
the West to be modern. The alternatives we are to think of
must make use of modern technology and science, and even
colonial legacies like Western knowledge and the command of
English, to our advantage. We do not have to walk into the
ancient past and try to re-establish a Nalanda or a Takshashila,
the ashrams and pathasalas and establish a gurukula-type of
education. This is just not possible or practical. With the
population crossing the one billion mark, an enormous pressure
is brought on the resources of the country. Secondly, the
present-day bureaucracy was not present in the ancient past;
there was no University Grants Commission in those days and
universities like Nalanda and Takshashila did not have Accounts
Officers, Controllers of Examinations, or Registrars. The
problem of numbers must be taken into account in our planning
and we must strike a balance between the old and the new, and
get the best of both. Thus, the interactive discourse in
education must take place not only between, the East and the
West but also between the old and the new within the country.
It must also take place among the various linguistic groups,
religious communities, and regions and between the urban and
the rural people. Only then will the unity in the plurality
emerge. Only such a discourse will prevent the hegemony of
one over the other. In a land of multiple modules, no one system
or layer can be privileged over the other. India is not Sanskrit
India or Hindi India or urban India.
Another important task in the new educational system is the
bridging of the gap between the languages of India, on the one
hand, and English and the English-educated Indians, on the
other. A proper, matured dialogue based on the 'yoking' of the
cultural and literary productions of the two systems concerned
will narrow the communication gap created by the 'colonial
180 The Story of English in India

divide' and result in a productive ploughing of our fertile field.

Such 'yoking' will be beneficial to society at large and create a
level field for the non-English-knowing population. English-
knowing Indians must be made to realize that English literature
is no longer central to our educational or cultural enterprise,
and that great literature exists even outside English.
Taking into account all the factors mentioned above, the roles
assigned to English in contemporary India need to be
reformulated, depending on the needs of the changing
conditions. Indians need English but it depends on what they
are going to do with it. The changing scenario from coloniality to
globality entails a shift in the aims and objectives of teaching
English in India. They can be stated as follows:
1. The market-driven utilitarian function (i.e. taking into account
the global market, English must be taught for global
communication, career opportunities, and mobility)
2. The welfare-driven social function (i.e. using English as a
'source' for Indian languages, Indian knowledge systems,
and the lives of the vast majority of people who have been
marginalized and exploited so far)
3. The ideology-driven identity projection function (translating and
projecting India so that English becomes a 'window on
India')

5.8.1 Market-driven Utilitarian Function

In free India, Indians have understood that English is not the
only language for shaping one's aesthetic sense, cultivating
universal humanistic values, cultivating creative and critical
thinking, or getting 'civilized'. All these functions were/have
been/can be more effectively performed by Indian languages
and their literatures with their rich and ancient traditions; they
have an age-old humanistic tradition and we do not need English
for these purposes.
 The Globalization Phase 181

English is necessary for mobility, career advancement,

opportunities and social and economic purposes. English is the
language that opens the door of a global market. As an international
language, English has a lot of 'surrender value' throughout the
world and learners of English can cash in on that. That is why
there is a great demand for courses on Spoken English, Written
English, Business English, Management English, English for Information
Technology, Technical Writing, Medical Transcription, Communication
Skills in English and so on. The market for literary English and
literature-based courses is fast dwindling, making such efforts
purposeless. English departments in universities must change
their content and style of teaching to suit market conditions;
otherwise, they will be marginalized.

5.8.2 Welfare-driven Social Function

Learners of English in India have realized that English is a
'window to the world'—an access to the growing fund of
knowledge in science and technology. As the Study Group
Report says, '... with our long tradition in the use of English,
we should be able to'exploit the richness of this language to
the advantage of major Indian languages.' The English language
has the necessary information in every branch of knowledge—
agriculture, economics, commerce, business, engineering, space-
technology, bio-technology, information-technology, consumer
products etcetera—which is readily available (quite often at
the click of the mouse on the Internet). English is an 'exploding
language' in a world of'information explosion'. We need to profit
from the stock of knowledge and information in English.
Indians know that they need English for technological purposes
and for modernization. That is why English is retained as the
language of instruction in our agriculture universities, though
English is not the language of agriculture in India. We need
English in management and engineering and that is why English
is retained as the medium of instruction in courses on
management and engineering in the IIMs, IITs, engineering
colleges etcetera though English is not the language of day-to-
182 The Story of English in India

day transaction in the management of business or workshops at

most levels.
Indian languages are rich in certain areas like philosophy, religion,
literature etcetera and English is not going to replace Indian
languages in such areas or in the areas of intimacy. English can
never be the home-language for the vast majority in areas like
religious discourses, prayer etc. English will be a powerful
market-language or street language, the language of transaction,
of modernization (and not of Westernization).
We need to intelligently use the resources of English to enrich
the major Indian languages; we need to activate the 'process of
percolation' from the 'lab to land' by using English as a source
language. English should play a catalytic role or a socially
transforming role in contemporary India, and not a literary role as
in the days of the British Raj. An 'interface' between English
and Indian languages will be to the advantage of the vast majority
of non-English-knowing people in India, who, at present, are
exploited by the English-knowing minority in urban areas. Rural
India should get the English advantage as well as the
technological advantage, which is now available only in 'English-
India'. Rural India must also be empowered with English and
the masses must get the advantage. The teaching and learning
of English in India should become an agent of social change and
social transformation; adapting Macaulay's unutilized 'filtration
theory', we must produce a class of Indiansy not only in blood and
colour, but also Indian in tastes, in opinion, in morals, and in intellect—
a class of Indians who will be socially responsible, pi~oductive and
committed to the cause of nation-building.

To achieve all these goals, it will be necessary to produce

competent people in the art and science of translation. We
need to produce not only translated versions of the best books
available in English to help those who are not able to profit
from the books in English, but also create original texts in Indian
languages, particularly in science, technology, and commerce.
We need to train an army of translators and materials producers
to effectively accomplish this 'Himalayan task'.
 The Globalization Phase 183

5.8.3 Ideology-driven Identity Projection Function

Learners of English in India have realized that English is
necessary to talk about their own identity (or identities), their
languages and literatures, their cultures and values, their land
and their heritage, their contribution to the commonwealth of
knowledge so that the world outside (not only outside India
but also outside their own state or linguistic community) may
know what they mean and what they stand for; this 'projection
of one's identity' can be done only effectively in an international
language like English.
This 'identity-projection' function was effectively activated
during the struggle for independence; this function should
become one of the important objectives of teaching English in
India. This, in a way, reverses one of the roles that English has
played so far, that of being a 'window on the world'; we must
use English to create a 'window on India' so that India is not
viewed just as a land of Maharajas, god-men, snake charmers,
magicians, and beggars. The world must know that India is the
land of Panini, Bhartahari, Nagatjuna, Sankara, Ramanuja,
Madhva, Aryabhatta, Bhaskara, Jayadeva, Tolkappiyar,
Bharathi and a host of others. In addition to being a storehouse
of talent in software and low-cost human power, India is a land
that offers alternative lifestyles, alternative medicines and
alternative human values. India is a land of intellectual giants,
who can engage the best in Western thought. But this image of
India has not been properly projected in English.
This involves an in-depth understanding of our own country,
its culture, heritage and values, languages and literatures, and
the massive project of 'translating India'; we need to translate
India in the eyes of the world. This also involves a massive
translation project, from Indian languages to English—a project
that has to be incorporated in our educational system. It is
meant to translate India to the West and to translate and
interpret one's own community to the rest of India, so that a
proper understanding and interaction may take place at various
184 The Story of English in India

levels. Only Indians who are competent in English can do it

effectively; the departments of English in our universities
should realize that it is not just that commonwealth literature
to be taught, but we have to create a common wealth of
literature.
A dynamic model of English teaching, as outlined above, can
promote the creative process; it is a process of creative
construction. An 'indigenous approach' based on our own needs
and requirements, on our own wisdom, suitable to a multi-
cultural and multi-lingual context must be evolved for teaching
English in India. Decolonizing the colonial English educational
pattern in India is also an attempt to examine and study certain
fundamental issues like the suitability of Western models as
universals, problems in adoption and adaptation, and how adept
we afe in handling neo-colonialism. Fundamental issues like
decolonizing the mind and understanding power-dynamics are
involved in this project. Our attempt in India will be a case-
study, and this experiment in the process of decolonization could
serve as a model for manypther areas in the world that are
struggling to get rid of exploitation in various forms. Like India's
experiments in non-violence that inspired many in the world,
our decolonization enterprise can be a source of inspiration to
the rest of the colonized world.
No doubt, it is a massive operation that can be compared with
the freedom movement in India; it should be called the second
freedom movement. The subcontinent was colonized through
education backed by gunpower; the gunpower is gone but the
education system is deeply rooted in our country. Colonialism is
established in the minds of men and women, and only in the minds of men
and women can thefoundations of anti-colonialism be built; it is education
that can start the process of decolonization. It cannot be done in a
day or two; colonialism was built up over a period of time and
decolonizing the mind and the system will take time—maybe a
century or two. But, someday, somewhere, a beginning must
be made. The second freedom movement must be started—
the sooner the better.
 The Globalization Phase 185

References
Crystal, D. (1997). English as a Global Language. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.

Huntingdon, S. (1996). The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the

World Order. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Krishnamurti, J. (2000). 'On Nationalism1. 777e First and Last Freedom.

Chennai: Krishnamurti Foundation India.

Krishnaswamy, R. (2001). 'Decolonizing the 'Subject' of Modern Linguistics'.

Paper presented at the MLA conference.

Kumamaravadivelu, B. (2002). 'From ColonialitytoGlobality: (Re)visioning

English Education in India'. Indian Journal of Applied Linguistics: Vol
28: no. July-Dec 2002.

Medgycs, P. (1994). The Non-native Teacher. London: Macmillan.

Philipson, R. (2000). 'English in the New World Order: Variations on a

Theme of Linguistic Imperialism and 'World' English'. Ideology, Politics,
Language Policies: Focus on English. Ed. Ricento, T. Amsterdam: John
Benjamins.

wa Thiong'o, N. (1993). Moving the Centre: The Struggle for Cultural

Freedom. London: Heinemann.

—. (1986). Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African

Literature. Portsmouth: Heinemann.
 Appendix I

Raja Rammohan Roy's Letter to

Lord Amherst on Western Education
(Source: Indian-English Prose: An Anthology, Edited by D.
Ramakrishna)
Year: 1823
To
His Excellency the Right Hon'ble William Pitt, Lord Amherst

My Lord,
Humbly reluctant as the natives of India are to obtrude upon
the notice of the government the sentiments they entertain
on any public measure, there are circumstances when silence
would be carrying this respectful feeling to culpable excess.
The present Rulers of India, coming from a distance of many
thousand miles to govern a people whose language, literature,
manners, customs, and ideas are almost entirely hew and strange
to them, cannot easily become so intimately acquainted with
their real circumstances, as the natives of the country are
themselves. We should therefore be guilty of a gross dereliction
of duty to ourselves, and afford our Rulers just ground of
complaint at our apathy, did we omit on occasions of importance
like the present to supply them with such accurate information
as might enable them to devise and adopt measures calculated
to be beneficial to the country, and thus second by our
knowledge and experience their declared benevolent intentions
for its improvement.
The establishment of a new Sangscrit School in Calcutta evinces
the laudable desire of the government to improve the Natives
 Appendix I 187

of India by Education—a blessing for which they must ever be

grateful; and every well-wisher of the human race must be
desirous that the efforts made to promote it should be guided
by the most enlightened principles, so that the stream of
intelligence may flow into the most useful channels.
We now find that the government are establishing a Sangscrit
school under Hindoo pundits to impart such knowledge as is
already current in India. This seminary (similar in character to
those that existed in Europe before the time of Lord Bacon)
can only be expected to load the minds of youth with
grammatical niceties and metaphysical distinctions of little or
no practicable use to the masses or to society. There, pupils
will acquire what was known two thousand years ago, with the
addition of vain and empty subtleties since produced by
speculative men, such as is already commonly taught in all parts
of India.
In representing the subject to your Lordship I conceive myself
discharging a solemn duty which I owe to my countrymen and
also to that enlightened Sovereign and Legislature which have
extended their benevolent cares to this distant and land
actuated by a desire to improve its inhabitants and I therefore
humbly trust you will excuse the liberty I have taken in thus
expressing my sentiments to your Lordship.
I have etc.,
RAMMOHAN ROY
 Appendix II

On Education for India

Thomas Babington Macaulay

(Source: 'Thomas Babington Macaulay on Education for India',
in Imperialism, ed. By Philip D. Curtin, New York: Harper and
Row, 1971, pp.181-91.)
i As it seems to be the opinion of some of the gentlemen
who compose the Committee of Public Instruction, that
the course which they have hitherto pursued was strictly
prescribed by the British Parliament in 1813, and as, if
that opinion be correct, a legislative act will be necessary
to warrant a change, I have thought it right to refrain from
taking any p a r t in the preparation of the adverse
statements which are now before us, and to reserve what I
had to say on the subject till it should come before me as
a member of the Council of India.
ii It does not appear to me that the Act of Parliament can,
by any art of construction, be made to bear the meaning
which has been assigned to it. It contains nothing about
the particular languages or sciences which are to be
studied. A sum is set apart "for the revival and promotion
of literature and the encouragement of the learned natives
of India, and for the introduction and promotion of a
knowledge of the sciences among the inhabitants of the
British territories." It is argued, or rather taken for
granted, that by literature, the Parliament can have meant
only Arabic and Sanscrit literature, that they never would
have given the honourable appellation of 'a learned native'
to a native who was familiar with the poetry of Milton, the
Metaphysics of Locke, and the Physics of Newton; but
that they meant to designate by that name only such
 Appendix II 189

persons as might have studied in the sacred books of the

Hindoos all the uses of cusa-grass, and all the mysteries of
absorption into the Deity. This does not appear to be a
very satisfactory interpretation. To take a parallel case;
suppose that the Pacha of Egypt, a country once superior
in knowledge to the nations of Europe, but now sunk far
below them, were to appropriate a sum for the purpose of
'reviving and promoting literature, and encouraging learned
natives of Egypt,' would anybody infer that he meant the
youth of his pachalic to give years to the study of
hieroglyphics, to search into all the doctrines disguised
under the fable of Osiris, and to ascertain with all possible
accuracy the ritual with which cats and onions were
anciently adored? Would he be justly charged with
inconsistency, if, instead of employing his young subjects
in deciphering obelisks, he were to order them to be
instructed in the English and French languages, and in all
the sciences to which those languages are the chief keys?
iii The words on which the supporters of the old system rely
do not bear them out, and other words follow which seem
to be quite decisive on the other side. This lac of rupees is
set apart, not only for 'reviving literature in India,' the phrase
on which their whole interpretation is founded, but also for
'the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the
sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories,'
—words which are alone sufficient to authorize all the
changes for which I contend.
iv If the Council agree in my construction, no legislative
Act will be necessary. If they differ from me, I will prepare
a short Act rescinding that clause of the Charter of 1813,
from which the difficulty arises.
v The argument which I have been considering, affects only
the form of proceeding. But the admirers of the Oriental
system of education have used another argument, which,
if we admit it to be valid, is decisive against all change.
190 The Story of English in India

They conceive that the public faith is pledged to the

present system, and that to alter the appropriation of any
of the funds which have hitherto been spent in encouraging
the study of Arabic and Sanscrit, would be down-right
spoliation. It is not easy to understand by what process of
reasoning they can have arrived at this conclusion. The
grants which are made from the public purse for the
encouragement of literature differed in no respect from
the grants which are made from the same purse for other
objects of real or supposed utility. We found a sanatarium
on a spot which we suppose to be healthy. Do we thereby
pledge ourselves to keep a sanatorium there, if the result
should not answer our expectation? We commence the
erection of a pier. Is it a violation of the public faith to
stop the works, if we afterwards see reason to believe that
the building will be useless? The rights of property are
undoubtedly sacred. But nothing endangers those rights
so much as the practice, now unhappily too common, of
attributing them to things to which they do not belong.
Those who would impart to abuses the sanctity of property
are in truth imparting to the institution of property the
unpopularity and the fragility of abuses. If the
Government has given to any person a formal assurance;
nay, if the Government has excited in any person's mind a
reasonable expectation that he shall receive a certain
income as a teacher or a learner of Sanscrit or Arabic, I
would respect that person's pecuniary interests—I would
rather err on the side of liberality to individuals than suffer
the public faith to be called in question. But to talk of a
Government pledging itself to teach certain languages and
certain sciences, though those languages may become
useless, though those sciences may be exploded, seems
to me quite unmeaning. There is not a single word in any
public instructions, from which it can be inferred that
the Indian Government ever intended to give any pledge
on this subject, or ever considered the destination of these
 Appendix II 191

funds as unalterably fixed. But had it been otherwise, I

should have denied the competence of our predecessors
to bind us by any pledge on such a subject. Suppose that
a Government had in the last century enacted in the most
solemn manner that all its subjects should, to the end of
time, be inoculated for the small-pox: would that
Government be bound to persist in the practice after
Jenner's discovery? These promises, of which nobody
claims the performance, and from which nobody can grant
a release; these vested rights, which vest in nobody; this
property without proprietors; this robbery, which makes
nobody poorer, may be comprehended by persons of higher
faculties than mine. I consider this plea merely as a set
form of words, regularly used both in England and in India,
in defence of every abuse for which no other plea can be
set up.
vi I hold this lac of rupees to be quite at the disposal of the
Governor-General in Council, for the purpose of promoting
learning in India, in any way which may be thought most
advisable. I hold his Lordship to be quite as free to direct
that it shall no longer be employed in encouraging Arabic
and Sanscrit as he is to direct that the reward for killing
tigers in Mysore shall be diminished, or that no more public
money shall be expended on the chanting at the cathedral.
vii We now come to the gist of the matter. We have a fund to
be employed as Government shall direct for the intellectual
improvement of the people of this country. The simple
question is, what is the most useful way of employing it?
viii All parties seem to be agreed on one point, that the dialects
commonly spoken among the natives of this part of India
contain neither literary nor scientific information, and are
moreover so poor and rude that, until they are enriched
from some other quarter, it will not be easy to translate
any valuable work into them. It seems to be admitted on
all sides, that the intellectual improvement of those classes
192 The Story of English in India

of the people who have the means of pursuing higher

studies can at present be effected only by means of some
language not vernacular amongst them.
ix What then shall that language be? One-half of the
Committee maintain that it should be the English. The
other half strongly recommend the Arabic and Sanscrit.
The whole question seems to me to be, which language is
the best worth knowing.
x I have no knowledge of either Sanscrit or Arabic. But I
have done what I could to form a correct estimate of their
value. I have read translations of the most celebrated
Arabic and Sanscrit works. I have conversed, both here
and at home, with men distinguished by their proficiency
in the Eastern tongues. I am quite ready to take the
Oriental learning at the valuation of the Orientalists
themselves. I have never found one among them who
could deny that a single shelf of a good European library
was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia.
The intrinsic superiority of the Western literature is indeed
fully admitted by those members of the Committee who
support the Oriental plan of education.
xi It will hardly be disputed, I suppose, that the department
of literature in which the Eastern writers stand highest is
poetry. And I certainly never met with any Orientalist
who ventured to maintain that the Arabic and Sanscrit
poetry could be compared to that of the great European
nations. But when we pass from works of imagination to
works in which facts are recorded and general principles
investigated, the superiority of the Europeans becomes
absolutely immeasurable. It is, I believe, no exaggeration
to say that all the historical information which has been
collected from all the books written in the Sanscrit
languages is less valuable than what may be found in the
most paltry abridgments used at preparatory schools in
England. In every branch of physical or moral philosophy,
the relative position of the two nations is nearly the same.
 Appendix II 193

xii How then stands the case? We have to educate a people

who cannot at present be educated by means of their
mother-tongue. We must teach them some foreign
language. The claims of our own language it is hardly
necessary to recapitulate. It stands pre-eminent even
among the languages of the West. It abounds with works
of imagination not inferior to the noblest which Greece
has bequeathed to us; with models of every species of
eloquence, with historical compositions which, considered
merely as narratives, have seldom been surpassed, and
which, considered as vehicles of ethical and political
instruction, have never been equaled, with just and lively
representations of human life and human nature, with the
most profound speculations on metaphysics, morals,
government, jurisprudence, trade; with full and correct
information respecting every experimental science which
tends to preserve the health, to increase the comfort, or
to expand the intellect of man. Whoever knows that
language has ready access to all the vast intellectual wealth
which all the wisest nations of the earth have created and
hoarded in the course of ninety generations. It may safely
be said that the literature now extant in that language is
of greater value than all the literature which three hundred
years ago was extant in all the languages of the world
together. Nor is this all. In India, English is the language
spoken by the ruling class. It is spoken by the higher
class of natives of the seats of Government. It is likely to
become the language of commerce throughout the seas of
the East. It is the language of two great European
communities which are rising, the one in the south of
Africa, the other in Australasia; communities which are
every year becoming more important and more closely
connected with our Indian empire. Whether we look at
the intrinsic value of our literature, or at the particular
situation of this country, we shall see the strongest reason
to think that, of all foreign tongues, the English tongue is
that which would be the most useful to our native subjects.
194 The Story of English in India

xiii The question now before us is simply whether, when it is

in our power to teach this language, we shall teach
languages in which, by universal confession, there are no
books on any subject which deserve to be compared to
our own; whether, when we can teach European science,
we shall teach systems which, by universal confession,
wherever they differ from those of Europe, differ for the
worse; and whether, when we can patronize sound
Philosophy and true History, we shall countenance, at the
public expense, medical doctrines which would disgrace
an English farrier, Astronomy which would move laughter
in girls at an English boarding school, History abounding
with kings thirty feet high and reigns thirty thousand years
long, and Geography made of seas of treacle and seas of
butter.
xiv We are not without experience to guide us, History
furnishes several analogous cases, and they all teach the
same lesson. There are, in modern times, to go no further,
two memorable instances of a great impulse given to the
mind of a whole society, of prejudices overthrown, of
knowledge diffused, of taste purified, of arts and sciences
planted in countries which had recently been ignorant and
barbarous.
xv The first instance to which I refer is the great revival of
letters among the Western nations at the close of the
fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century. At
that time almost everything that was worth reading was
contained in the writing of the ancient Greeks and Romans.
Had our ancestors acted as the Committee of Public
Instruction has hitherto acted; had they neglected the
language of Thucydides and Plato, and the language of
Cicero and Tacitus; had they confined their attention to
the old dialects of our own island; had they printed nothing
and taught nothing at the universities but chronicles in
Anglo-Saxon and romances in Norman French, would
England ever have been what she now is? What the Greek
 Appendix II 195

and Latin were to the contemporaries of More and Ascham,

our tongue is to the people of India. The literature of
England is now more valuable than that of classical
antiquity. I doubt whether the Sanscrit literature be as
valuable as that of our Saxon and Norman progenitors. In
some departments—in history for example—I am certain
that it is much less so.
xvi Another instance may be said to be still before our eyes.
Within the last hundred and twenty years, a nation which
had previously been in a state as barbarous as that in which
our ancestors were before the Crusades, has gradually
emerged from the ignorance in which it was sunk, and has
taken its place among civilized communities. I speak of
Russia. There is now in that country a large educated
class abounding with persons fit to serve the State in the
highest functions, and in no ways inferior to the most
accomplished men who adorn the best circles of Paris and
London. There is reason to hope that this vast empire
which, in the time of our grandfathers, was probably behind
the Punjab, may in the time of our grandchildren, be
pressing close on France and Britain in the career of
improvement. And how was this change effected? Not
by flattering national prejudices; not by feeding the mind
of the young Muscovite with the old women's stories
which his rude fathers had believed; not by filling his head
with lying legends about St. Nicholas; not by encouraging
him to study the great question, whether the world was or
not created on the 13th of September; not by calling him
'a learned native' when he had mastered all these points
of knowledge; but by teaching him those foreign languages
in which the greatest mass of information had been laid
up, and thus putting all that information within his reach.
The languages of Western Europe civilized Russia. I cannot
doubt that they will do for the Hindoo what they have
done for the Tartar.
196 The Story of English in India

xvii And what are the arguments against that course which
seems to be alike recommended by theory and by
experience? It is said that we ought to secure the co-
operation of the native public, and that we can do this
only by teaching, Sanscrit and Arabic.
xviii I can by no means admit that, when a nation of high
intellectual attainments undertakes to superintend the
education of a nation comparatively ignorant, the learners
are absolutely to prescribe the course which is to be taken
by the teachers. It is not necessary, however to say,
anything on this subject. For it is proved by unanswerable
evidence, that we are not at present securing the
cooperation of the natives, it would be bad enough to
consult their intellectual taste at the expense of their
intellectual health. But we are consulting neither. We are
withholding from them the learning which is palatable to
them. We are forcing on them the mock-learning which
they nauseate.
xix This is proved by the fact that we are forced to pay our
Arabic and Sanscrit students while those who learn English
are willing to pay us. All the declamations in the world
about the. love and reverence of the natives for their sacred
dialects will never, in the mind of any impartial person,
outweigh this undisputed fact, that we cannot find in all
our vast empire a single student who will let us teach him
those dialects, unless we will pay him.
xx I have now before me the accounts of the Madrassa for
one month, the month of December, 1833. The Arabic
students appear to have been seventy-seven in number.
All receive stipends from the public. The whole amount
paid to them is above 500 rupees a month. On the other
side of the account stands the following item.
Deduct amount realized from the out-students of English for the
months of May, June, and July last—103 rupees.
 Appendix II 197

xxi I have been told that it is merely from want of local

experience that I am surprised at these phenomena, and
that it is not the fashion for students in India to study at
their own charges. This only confirms me in my opinions.
Nothing is more certain than that it never can in any part
of the world be necessary to pay men for doing what they
think pleasant and profitable. India is no exception to
this rule. The people of India do not require to be paid
for eating rice when they are hungry, or for wearing woollen
cloth in the cold Season. To come nearer to the case before
us, the children who learn their letters and a little
elementary Arithmetic from the village schoolmaster are
not paid by him. He is paid for teaching them. Why then
is it necessary to pay people to learn Sanscrit and Arabic?
Evidently because it is universally felt that the Sanscrit
and Arabic are languages, the knowledge of which does
not compensate for the trouble of acquiring them. On all
such subjects the state of the market is the decisive test.
xxii Other evidence is not wanting, if other evidence were
required. A petition was presented last year to the
Committee by several ex-students of the Sanscrit College.
The petitioners stated that they had studied in the college
ten or twelve years, that they had made themselves
acquainted with Hindoo literature and science, that they
had received certificates of proficiency. And what is the
fruit of all this? 'Notwithstanding such testimonials,' they
say, 'we have but little prospect of bettering our condition
without the kind assistance of your Honorable Committee,
the indifference with which we are generally looked upon
by our countrymen leaving no hope of encouragement and
assistance from them.' They therefore beg that they may
be recommended to the Governor-General for places under
the Government, not places of high dignity or emolument,
but such as may just enable them to exist. 'We want
means,' they say, 'for a decent living, and for our
progressive improvement, which, however, we cannot
198 The Story of Eng/is/i in India

obtain without the assistance of Government, by whom

we have been educated and maintained from childhood.'
They conclude by representing very pathetically that they
are sure that it was never the intention of Government,
after behaving so liberally to them during their education,
to abandon them to destitution and neglect.
xxiii I have been used to see petitions to Government for
compensation. All these petitions, even the most
unreasonable of them, proceeded on the supposition that
some loss had been sustained—that some wrong had been
inflicted. These are surely the first, petitioners who ever
demanded compensation for having been educated gratis—
for having been supported by the public during twelve
years, and then sent forth into the world well furnished
with literature and science. They represent their education
as an injury which gives them a claim on the Government
for redress, as an injury for which the stipends paid to
them during the infliction were a very inadequate
compensation. And I doubt not that they are in the right.
They have wasted the best years of life in learning what
procures for them neither bread nor respect. Surely we
might, with advantage, have saved the cost of making
these persons useless and miserable. Surely, men may be
brought up to be burdens to the public and objects of
contempt to their neighbours at a somewhat smaller charge
to the State. But such is our policy. We do not even stand
neuter in the contest between truth and falsehood. We
are not content to leave the natives to the influence of
their own hereditary prejudices. To the natural difficulties
which obstruct the progress of sound science in the East,
we add fresh difficulties of our own making. Bounties and
premiums, such as ought not to be given even for the
propagation of truth, we lavish on false texts and false
philosophy.
xxiv By acting thus we create the very evil which we fear. We
are making that opposition which we do not find. What
 Appendix II 199

we spend on the Arabic and Sanscrit colleges is not merely

a dead loss to the cause of truth. It is bounty-money paid
to raise up champions of error. It goes to form a nest, not
merely of helpless plaCe-hunters, but of bigots prompted
alike by passion and by interest to raise a cry against every
useful scheme of education. If there should be any
opposition among the natives to the change which I
recommend, that opposition will be the effect of our own
system. It will be headed by persons supported by our
stipends and trained in our colleges. T h e longer we
persevere in our present course, the more formidable will
that opposition be. It will be the effect of our own system.
It will be every year reinforced by recruits whom we are
paying. From the native society, left to itself, we have no
difficulties to apprehend. All the murmuring will come
from that oriental interest which we have, by artificial
means, called into being and nursed into strength.
xxv There is yet another fact, which is alone sufficient to prove
that the feeling of the native public, when left to itself, is
not such as the supporters of the old system represent it
to be. The Committee have thought fit to lay out above
a lac of rupees in printing Arabic and Sanscrit books. These
books find no purchasers. It is very rarely that a single
copy is disposed of. Twenty-three thousand volumes, most
of them folios and quartos, fill the libraries, or rather the
lumber-rooms, of this body. The Committee contrive to
get rid of some portion of their vast stock of oriental
literature by giving books away. But they cannot give so
fast as they print. About twenty thousand rupees a year
are spent in adding fresh masses of waste paper to a hoard
which, I should think, is already sufficiently ample. During
the last three years about sixty thousand rupees have been
expended in this manner. The sale of Arabic and Sanscrit
books during those three years has not yielded quite one
thousand rupees. In the meantime, the School Book
Society is selling seven or eight thousand English volumes
200 The Story of English in India

every year, and not only pays the expenses of printing but
realizes a profit of twenty per cent on its outlay.
xxvi The fact that the Hindoo law is to be learned chiefly from
Sanscrit books, and the Mahomedan law from Arabic books,
has been much insisted on, but seems not to bear at all on
the question. We are commanded by Parliament to
ascertain and digest the laws of India. The assistance of a
Law Commission has been given to us for that purpose.
As soon as the Code is promulgated the Shasters and the
Hedaya will be useless to a moonsiff or a Sudder Ameen
[i.e. the traditional Indian books of law will be of no use to
Indian judges]. I hope and trust that, before the boys
who are now entering at the Madrassa and the Sanscrit
College have completed their studies, this great work will
be finished. It would be manifestly absurd to educate the
rising generation with a view to a state of things which we
mean to alter before they reach manhood.
xxvii But there is yet another argument which seems even more
untenable. It is said that the Sanscrit and Arabic are the
languages in which the sacred books of a hundred millions
of people are written, and that they are on that account
entitled to peculiar encouragement. Assuredly it is the
duty of the British Government in India to be not only
tolerant but neutral on all religious questions. But to
encourage the study of literature, admitted to be of small
intrinsic value, only because that literature inculcates the
most serious errors on the most important subjects, is a
course hardly reconcilable with reason, with morality, or
even with that very neutrality which ought, as we all agree,
to be sacredly preserved. It is confessed that a language
is barren of useful knowledge. We are to teach false History,
false Astronomy, false Medicine, because we find them in
company with a false religion. We abstain, and I trust
shall always abstain, from giving any public encouragement
to those who are engaged in the work of converting the
natives to Christianity. And while we act thus, can we
 Appendix II 201

reasonably and decently bribe men, out of the revenues of

the State, to waste their youth in learning how they are to
purify themselves after touching an ass or what texts of
the Vedas they are to repeat to expiate the crime of killing
a goat?
xxviii It is taken for granted by the advocates of Oriental learning
that no native of this country can possibly attain more
than a mere smattering of English. They do not attempt
to prove this. But they perpetually insinuate it. They
designate the education which their opponents recommend
as a mere spelling-book education. They assume it as
undeniable that the question is between a profound
knowledge of Hindoo and Arabian literature and science
on the one side, and superficial knowledge of the
rudiments of English on the other. This is not merely an
assumption, but an assumption contrary to all reason and
experience. We know that foreigners of all nations do learn
our language sufficiently to have access to all the most
abstruse knowledge which it contains sufficiently to relish
even the more delicate graces of our most idiomatic writers.
There are in this very town natives who are quite
competent to discuss political or scientific questions with
fluency and precision in the English language. I have heard
the very question on which I am now writing discussed by
native gentlemen with a liberality and an intelligence which
would do credit to any member of the Committee of Public
Instruction. Indeed it is unusual to find, even in the
literary circles of the Continent, any foreigner who can
express himself in English with so much facility and
correctness as we find in many Hindoos. Nobody, I
suppose, will contend that English is so difficult to a
Hindoo as Greek to an Englishman. Yet an intelligent
English youth, in a much smaller number of years than
our unfortunate pupils pass as the Sanscrit College,
becomes able to read, to enjoy, and even to imitate not
unhappily the compositions of the best Greek authors.
202 The Story of English in India

Less than half the time which enables an English youth

to read Herodotus and Sophocles ought to enable a Hindoo
to read Hume and Milton.
xix To sum up what I have said, I think it is clear that we are
not fettered by the Act of Parliament of 1813; that we are
not fettered by any pledge expressed or implied; that we
are free to emply our funds as we choose; that we ought to
employ them in teaching what is best worth knowing; that
English is better worth knowing than Sanscrit or Arabic;
that the natives are desirous to be taught English and not
desirous to be taught Sanscrit or Arabic; that neither as
the languages of law, nor as the languages of religion, have
the Sanscrit and Arabic any peculiar claim to our
engagement; that it is possible to make natives of this
country thoroughly good English scholars, and that to this
end our efforts ought to be directed.
xxx In one point I fully agree with the gentlemen to whose
general views I am opposed. I feel with them that it is
impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to
educate the body of the people. We must at present do
our best to form a class who may be interpreters between
us and the millions whom we govern—a class of persons
Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in
opinions, in morals and in intellect. To that class we may
leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the country, to
enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from
the Western nomenclature, and to render them by degrees
fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of
the population.
xxxi I would strictly respect all existing interests. I would
deal even generously with all individuals who have had fair
reason to expect a pecuniary provision. But I would strike
at the root of the bad system which has hitherto been
fostered by us. I would at once stop the printing of Arabic
and Sanscrit books. I would abolish the Madrassa and the
 Appendix II 203

Sanscrit College at Calcutta. Benares is the great seat of

Brahminical learning; Delhi of Arabic learning. If we retain
the Sanscrit College at Benares and the Mahomedan
College at Delhi we do enough, and much more than
enough in my opinion, for the Eastern languages. If the
Benares and Delhi Colleges should be retained, 1 would at
least recommend that no stipends shall be given to any
students who may hereafter repair thither, but that the
people shall be left to make their own choice between the
rival systems of education without being bribed by us to
learn what they have no desire to know. The funds which
would thus be placed at our disposal would enable us to
give larger encouragement to the Hindoo College at
Calcutta and to establish in the principal cities throughout
the Presidencies of Fort William and Agra schools in which
the English language might be well and thoroughly taught.
xxxii If the decision of His Lordship in Council should be such
as I anticipate, I shall enter on the performance of my
duties with the greatest zeal and alacrity. If, on the other
hand, it be the opinion of the Government that the present
system ought to remain unchanged, I beg that I may be
permitted to retire from the chair of the Committee. I
feel that I could not be of the smallest use there—I feel
also that I should be lending my countenance to what I
firmly believe to be a mere delusion. I believe that the
present system tends not to accelerate the progress of
truth but to delay the natural death of expiring errors. I
conceive that we have at present no right to the respectable
name of a Board of Public Instruction. We are a Board for
wasting public money, for printing books which are of less,
value than the paper on which they are printed was while
it was blank; for giving artificial encouragement to absurd
history, absurd metaphysics, absurd physics, absurd
theology; for raising up a breed of scholars who find their
scholarship an encumbrance and blemish, who live on the
public while they are receiving their education, and whose
204 The Story of English in India

education is so utterly useless to them that, when they

have received it, they must either starve or live on the
public all the rest of their lives. Entertaining these
opinions, I am naturally desirous to decline all share in the
responsibility of a body which, unless it alters its whole
mode of proceedings, I must consider, not merely as
useless, but as positively noxious.
 Appendix III

Report of the Study Group on Teaching

of English
(Ministry of Education and Youth Services,
New Delhi: 1971.)

A. General Survey of the Present Position

1. A number of Committees and Study Groups have in recent
times given anxious thought to the place of English in our
system of education. The teaching of this language at
various stages, its role in school and at the university, its
share in the time tables, and its contribution to the teaching
of other subjects, form part of a problem which has become
increasingly important as well as controversial with the passage
of time.
2. Most aspects of the problem were reviewed by the Study
Group appointed by the Ministry of Education in 1964.
That Group examined the situation in the light of the
changed circumstances and the changed position of English
both as a subject of study at school and as the medium of
instruction at the university stage. (It made a number of
recommendations on policies and programmes, syllabuses,
methods and materials.)
3. Most of these recommendations are yet to be implemented
by the authorities responsible for the making of policies
and their implementation at various levels.
4. (During the last five years the situation has changed at a
much greater speed than ever before.) In several states,
especially in the north, the most conspicuous feature of the
changing policies with regard to English is their speed. We
206 The Story of English in India

have examples of more than one state where, only a few

years ago, English was taught as a compulsory language and,
however low the competence attained, pass marks had to
be secured in the English paper in order to get through the
High School examination. Today, largely because of the
mounting concern caused by an alarmingly high percentage of
failures in the subject at different end-of-the year and school-
leaving examinations, the Governments have decreed that
success in English should no longer be considered essential
for admission to the undergraduate courses at the university.
Considerations such as these have resulted in several other
changes, all of which tend to create the belief that there is
no need for effective teaching of measurable competence
in English. In a few states, English has been made an
optionalsubject, and in some it is an additionalpaper and the
marks secured in it do not in anyway affect the examination
result. In at least one state, if a student chooses to take
this paper, the fact is merely recorded on his result sheet.
The upshot of all these changes, and several others that are
becoming known with the passage of time, is that very soon,
in certain parts of India, the college entrant will know no
English, not even the alphabet.
5. The 'explosion of opportunity' which forms part of a modern
democracy also aggravates the problems of English teaching
and indeed raises many other important problems in our
system of education. We have, of late, witnessed a
tremendous expansion in primary and secondary education.
Many more children now enter school and receive
instruction at various levels and a large percentage of them
come from uneducated families. (Their environment does
not provide them with any opportunities of using English
outside the classroom.)
(Growth in numbers has necessitated the recruitment of
many more teachers both in primary and in secondary schools.
Our training programmes have failed to keep pace with the
 Appendix III 207

mounting needs for teacher education and training. The

teacher, especially at the primary and middle stages, is
therefore, in many instances, not adequately qualified or
trained for the specialist tasks of teaching a foreign language
at the earlier stages. The result is that, even where English
is taught in school, its teaching is not done by teachers
who have an adequate knowledge of the language and of
language-teaching methods.)
6. Cumulatively these changes have produced a situation
which causes great concern and which, if left to itself, will
result in a further lowering of the standards of English and
of education as a whole. (With the acquisition of bad
English or no English at school, the teaching of English at
the university presents an entirely new set of problems.)
Much time has to be devoted to repairing the damage done
or in building the foundations that are necessary for the
minimum essential use of this language at the under-
graduate and post-graduate stages.
7. Two questions have to be answered as a preliminary to the
formulation of new policies and programmes for the future
teaching of English at various stages in the country. The
first is: what are the reasons for the non-implementation of
some of the major recommendations of the previous
committees and special bodies? The second question is:
what are the new needs for which the sub committees
should work out new programmes and methods?
8. The study group suggested the following answers to the
first question. The decisions have not been implemented,
in the main, for the reasons set out below:
(a) There is a grave shortage of trained and fully qualified
teachers of English at almost all stages of the
educational system.
(b) There have been frequent changes in government policy
towards the teaching and learning of English in several
States.
208 The Story of English in India

(c) The State Education Departments have been slow in

taking decisions, and, even where decisions have been
taken, adequate resources are not available to carry them
out. Very often departments have not been able to
utilize fully the facilities available at various specialist
centres, and to organize their own courses for re-training
or in-service training.
(d) In general, the facilities available for reform and
reorganisation have been inadequate. The result is that
curricular changes have been very slow. In these
circumstances, even trained teachers have been unable
to make any great contribution to the improvement of
the teaching of the subject.
(e) The supervision of English teaching in schools has
continued to be neglected, with hardly any trained
specialists engaged in this task.
(f) In the majority of schools there is a great gulf between
the avowed approach and the actual practice. The aural/
oral approach, which of course ought not to be depended
upon as the sole key to success, has not found its way
at all into the ordinary classroom. (Most teachers make
free and often unsystematic use of the pupils' mother
tongue on the lines of the old grammar-translation
method.) Neither guidance nor material is available to
help teachers make a systematic and judicious use of a
bilingual method wherever the situation so demands.
9. The success of our future efforts in the field, will, in large
measure, depend on the removal of the deficiencies, failures,
implicit or explicit, set out in Para 8 (a)-(f) above. Every
effort, both at the Centre and in the States, should,
therefore, be made to remove the inadequacies and remedy
the defects in the existing structure.
10. The new needs are, in the main, related to the changed
conditions referred to earlier in this chapter. But some of
them have also come into existence because of the general
 Appendix III 209

recognition of fresh roles assigned to English in our

educational system.
As a free nation, we are committed to the enrichment of
Indian languages,#so that they may serve all those purposes
for which we now use English. To do so, however, we need
to profit from the existing stock of knowledge in English.
And with our long tradition in the use of English, we should
be able to exploit the richness of this language to the
advantage of major Indian languages.
For some time to come, we must depend on English to
provide a 'window on the world', an access to the growing
fund of knowledge in science, technology and humanities.
11. Three different but related demands have thus to be met
in framing the programmes for the future of English teaching
in this country. These are:
(a) the changing conditions and the need to answer the
problems created thereby;
(b) the role of English as a 'source' language; and
(c) the place of English as a 'link' with the outside world
for the acquisition of new knowledge.
To meet the first demand the Group considers it essential
to design courses that can satisfy different kinds of
'consumers' at various levels of learning. (These courses
should be varied enough to offer several alternatives -general
and specific, long-term and short-term, elementary and
advanced, in speech and writing.)
12. To use English as a 'source' language with a view to
enriching our own languages, it will be necessary to produce
competence, at high academic levels, in the skill of
translation. Translation as a specialist skill can be effectively
taught only at the intermediate and advanced stages of
language teaching, but even at these stages it must be taught
systematically as well.
210 The Story of English in India

T h e teaching of translation should form part of all

intermediate and advanced courses, and translation of graded
passages from English into the learner's language should be
made compulsory in at least the advanced courses. Translation
should also be given a place in post-graduate courses.
One immediate purpose in emphasizing the importance of
translation is to produce translated versions of the best
books available in the English language to help those who
are not able to profit from them because they lack the
necessary competence in the language. (To help in this
direction the Group considers it necessary to reiterate one
of the recommendations made by the English Review
Committee of the University Grants Commission (1965),
that "there could be no objection to the award of a Ph.D.
degree on the translation of well-known Indian classics with
suitable editing and biographical details".)
13. For an effective use of English as a 'link' with the wider
world of thought and discovery, our university student
should be able to use it 'in the library'. He must learn how
to read meaningfully all that appears in his field of specialist
study, he must become an effective note-taker and must
master the art of successful silent reading with speed and
comprehension. Training in the use of English as a 'library
language' is therefore greatly desirable and should be given
a place in all kinds of courses at both the school and the
university stage.
At the university stage it will be also be necessary to help
the student to use English for subjects other than English
'in the library'. A suitable machinery will have to be provided
to organise courses for them. The Group feels that such a
machinery can be made out of close collaboration between
the English department and selected members of the other
departments.
14. New commitments and new courses are necessary to halt
the deterioration of standards on the one hand and to
 Appendix HI 211

effectively introduce much-needed improvements on. the

other. All these require a strong complex of 'feeder
institutions'. Vital even to minor improvements in a system
are such requirements as pure and applied research, adequate
teacher-training both short- and long-term, good materials
for teachers and learners, and classroom equipment. This
can come only through the cooperation of high-level
institutions. The strengthening and, if necessary, creation
of such 'courses of excellence' must be considered among
the first priorities in any programme of reorganization and
reform in the teaching of English.
15. The Group feels that three factors are mainly responsible
for the success or failure of a teaching programme, In their
order of importance these three cardinal factors are 'Men'
'Materials' and 'Methods'. Each of these factors calls for
thoughtful care and careful planning, and each, in its present
state, in this country is in need of reform. We shall devote
the next chapter to discussing and defining the nature and
extent of such reform, keeping in view the needs of today
and the hopes of tomorrow.
(i) Having reviewed the problems and the urgencies in
the teaching of English as a foreign language in this
country today, the Group wishes to emphasize the need
to design courses that can satisfy different kinds of
'customers' at various levels of learning. These courses,
as envisaged, will be taught under various curricular
arrangements that exist at different places and may
have to be modified to suit the needs of different
States and different kinds of institutions. Uniformity
of policy in regard to the introduction of these courses
is, therefore, not a practical possibility.
Although the Group stands against any rigid all India
pattern and favours the use of specially tailored
programmes and materials for every major area of use,
it also feels that a set of model syllabuses, one for each
known need, will usefully serve the large number of
212 The Story of English in India

bodies and institutions which may wish to adopt them

or adapt them to their own particular requirements.
(ii) Syllabuses have been prepared for the various courses
that the Group wishes to suggest and they form Part
II of this Report. A brief Introduction to each course
is given below together with some notes on when to
use it and for what purposes.
(a) English at the School Stage: The teaching of
English should not begin earlier than Class V the
first year of the middle or upper primary stage. It
should be an examinable subject and those who
choose to study it should be required to take an
examination and pass it. The minimum level of
attainment detailed... should form the basis of the
regular courses at the school stage. (For pupils
whose performance or aptitude justifies it, there
should also be a course available at an advanced
level.)
States should be free to adopt this course or any
other course involving a higher level of attainment
in English according to their requirements. The
expert services of the Central Institute of English
should be available to all States, Universities and
State Institutes of English for working out the
details of their courses and the preparation of
textbooks and other teaching and testing materials.
(b) English at the Transitional Stage: It will be
an advantage to have a transitional stage, preferably
of two years, between the end of the school stage
and the beginning of the first degree course. Such
a stage already exists in some states. One of the
major objectives of this stage should be to prepare
students for advanced work at the university level
by helping them acquire a reasonable command
over English...
 Appendix HI 213
(c) English as a Library Language: Students now
come to the Intermediate and first-year degree
classes with varying degrees of attainment in
English. The spectrum is disquietingly wide, from
students educated at English medium schools at
the one end to those who have not studied it at all
at the other. Measures should, therefore, be taken
to introduce courses to suit the needs of students
at different levels of attainment and help them
attain a command whereby they can use English
as a 'library language'.
The best and most effective period for the
introduction of this course is the period between
the high school and the first degree stage. The
students will, by that time, have chosen their
course of study and can be helped to achieve
competence in the areas of language relevant to
their specializations. This will necessitate work
in two related fields: (i) the description of the
'register' of each subject area, especially the
syntactic structures and the most favoured
collocations, and (ii) the organization of suitable
courses for the successful implementation of the
programmes. Institutions that run such courses
will have to bring together specialists in various
subjects of study. Wherever possible, at least in
large institutions, there should be a member of
the staff with training and qualifications in English
language teaching, to coordinate the language work
of different departments and to help evolve
suitable courses. The possibility of attaching
teachers of English as consultants to the various
subject departments should be explored.
(d) English as Medium of Instruction at the
College Level: There should be a course for
students going to all-India institutions, colleges
214 The Story of English in India

of technology and similar institutes, who will have

to use English as a medium of instruction and
examination. It should have as its target the
standard of the Higher Secondary Course. As its
starting point it will have to take various levels of
achievement from no skill in English to skills at
the high level. The objectives of the course should
be to help students (i) follow lectures in English
(ii) to read text books in English (iii) speak to
teachers in English and (iv) make notes and write
examination answers in English. Provision should
be made for an intensive course during the first
long vacation and a thinly spread course during
the first year.
(e) Course in English for Students who Wish
to be Teachers of English or Study English
Literature: There should be a course for students
who want to take up English literature as their
special field of study or become teachers of
English. Students taking this course should be
given a thorough grounding both in language and
in literature. The course should give students an
adequate command of the use of English, and
introduce them to a critical appreciation of English
literature. Students who undergo this course
should be able to teach English at High/Higher
Secondary Schools and Junior/Intermediate
Colleges.
(f) English Language and Literature for
Students of Literature in Indian Languages:
There should be an optional course in English
language and literature for students studying
literature in an Indian language at the B.A. Honours
or M.A. level. This introduction of English
literature will sharpen their literary sensibilities
and encourage comparative literary studies. The
 Appendix III 215

general objectives of this course should be (i) to

help students acquire an adequate command of
English in order to appreciate literature in English,
(ii) to acquaint them with the significant aspects
of English literature and literary criticism,
including Indian writings in English, through the
study of appropriate texts, and (iii) to stimulate
comparative studies of English and Indian
literatures. Translation should form part of this
course, particularly translation from English into
an Indian language.
(g) English at the B.A. Honours and M.A.
Levels: It is assumed that there will always be
students specializing in English literature. The
present types of courses in English literature for
such students need to be changed. At the post
graduate level optional courses may be offered in
Indo-English, American and Commonwealth
literatures. The study of Linguistics and
Phonetics with special reference to English and
methods of second language teaching should also
be introduced in the B.A. (Hons.) and M.A.
Syllabuses.
(iii) The courses listed above should generally form part of
the regular curricula in schools, colleges and other
institutions of higher learning. At some
establishments, however, because of present-day
exigencies, special arrangements may have to be made
outside the normal timetables and during the long
vacations. The Group also sees the need for special
courses to meet the growing demands for English
teaching for specific purposes.
(iv) General Courses:
Certificate and Diploma Courses: The elements
of knowledge and skill presented in these two
216 The Story of English in India

syllabuses are basic to a reasonably competent user of

the English language. It is therefore recommended
that as far as possible, these two courses should be
taught as part of regular full-time courses. The two
courses can also be organized as part-time courses
outside the normal curriculum for undergraduate
studies, or during the summer vacation preceding the
postgraduate course.
The Certificate Course: This course should be
open to two categories of students: (a) Those members
of the general public who are above fifteen and who
have no knowledge of English but wish to acquire a
certain proficiency in the language for which they may
feel the need owing to vocational, professional or other
reasons, (b) Students at the High School or the Junior/
Intermediate College stage who have had no instruction
in English, but who need a knowledge of English, either
as a 'library language' or as a requirement in their
university courses.
The duration of this course should be one year. There
should be eighteen periods of work per week at the
rate of three forty-minute periods a day. Where this
course is not provided at the school level, it should be
given at the university level. At the end of the
Certificate Course astudent should be able to (i) read
simple passages of prose at a fair speed and with good
understanding, (ii) understand a talk in straightforward
English on subjects within his experience, and (iii)
express himself with a reasonable degree of accuracy in
speech and writing in English on subjects within his
experience.
The Diploma Course: This course should be
available to those who have successfully completed the
Certificate Course. It should be at the level of the
higher secondary course in English. At the end of this
course a student should be able to (i) understand the
 Appendix HI 217

main statements or ideas in a written passage and be

able to reproduce them in English, free from gross
errors, (ii) express himself in writing with relevance
and a fair measure of accuracy on a topic within his
experience and on a topic chosen from a curricular
subject with its own special vocabulary, (iii) understand
a talk (which may be a radio or tape recorded talk) or a
subject of general interest within his experience, and
(iv) carry on a conversation on a simple topic.
In addition to these two courses, there should also be
a Diploma Course in Advanced English including, in
addition to the contents of these two courses, an
advanced study of modern English usage and advanced
general comprehension. It may be a part-time course
and any university student may be permitted to take
it up in addition to his regular studies.
(iv) Special Courses: Two categories of courses are
included under 'Special Courses'. The first category
is one of general command, either of spoken or written
English. The second covers different professional
needs, e.g., the needs of students of commerce or those
of teachers of English.
a) Course in Spoken English: For students and other
people who wish to improve their proficiency in
Spoken English for their professional needs and
for effective oral communication, a part-time course
in Spoken English should be provided. It is
assumed that people admitted to this course will
have successfully completed the Higher Secondary
Course in English or the proposed Diploma Course
in English.
b) Course for Teachers of Spoken English: T h e teachers
who give the specialized course in Spoken English
should have received training in Phonetics and
Spoken English as part of their M.A. course in
218 The Story of English in India

English or have attended a one year course at the

Central Institute of English, Hyderabad. The
objectives of this course should be (i) to give
teachers of English an introduction to General
Phonetics, (ii) to acquaint them with the
phonology of English, and (iii) to give them speech
training in order to improve their own
pronunciation and their competence as teachers
of Spoken English.
c) Course in Written English. There should be a special
course in written English. Its main objective
should be to help students write an internationally
acceptable kind of English on academic matters.
This course will assume as initial requirement a
relatively good proficiency in respect to written
English at the High School level.
d) Course in Commercial English There should be a
specialized course in Commercial English designed
to help students (i) understand commercial
correspondence, commercial documents, and
textbooks and reference books on commercial
practices, (ii) write commercial correspondence
and commercial documents in an English of
international acceptability, and (iii) carry on
business affairs both in face-to-face conversation
and on the telephone in an English of international
acceptability. The entry requirement for this
course is a good High School Certificate or success
in the proposed Diploma Course in English.
e) Teacher Training Courses: Teacher training should
have high priority in any programme of reform in
English Language Teaching. There is urgent need
for a review of the existing courses with a view to
making them effective instruments of radical
change and reform. The following courses are
suggested as models:
 Appendix III 219

i) A Course in English for Non-graduate Teachers: For

non-graduate teachers it is desirable to have a
course in both language and methods. It
should be designed both to improve the pupil
teachers' skill in English and to train them to
become proficient as teachers of English. The
proposed syllabus consists of two parts. The
first part, which is a content course in English,
is intended to improve the pupil teacher's use
of English and is to be given during the first
year; the second part, i.e., the Methods
Course, should be given in the second year.
Practice teaching, which is to be conducted
in the second year, should be organized in such
a way that each learning teacher teaches at least
twenty-five lessons in the course of the year
(including a block of about ten lessons taught
in the same class during a period of two weeks.)
ii) A Course in Methods of Teaching English for the
B.Ed, examination: There should be a much
fuller course than exists at present in Methods
of Teaching English for the B.Ed, degree
examination. In order to make teachers
competent in the use of English and to train
them to teach it effectively, it is recommended
that the time allotted to Methods of Teaching
English should be raised to at least five periods
per week. Similarly the status of the course
in the scheme of examination should also be
raised. The paper in Methods of Teaching
English should carry a hundred marks and be
of three hours' duration. It is recommended
that the B.Ed, curriculum should allow the
trainees to specialize in one subject only,
instead of requiring them to study the methods
of teaching two school subjects.
 Appendix IV

Committees, Commissions and Reports in

Chronological Order

English Period
1. Macaulay's Minute 1835
2. Adam's Report 1835
3. Wood's Despatch 1854
4. The Indian Education Commission 1882-3
(Hunter Commission)
5. The Indian Universities Act 1904
6. The Calcutta University Commission 1917-9
(Sadler Commission)
7. The Auxiliary Committee Report
(Hartog Committee) 1928-9
8. Abbot-Wood Report 1936-7
9. Zakir Hussain Committee 1938
10. The Sargent Report 1944

After Independence
11. The University Education Commission 1948-9
(Radhakrishnan Commission)
12. Committee on Primary Education 1951
13. The Secondary Education Commission 1952-3
(Mudaliar Commission)
 Appendix IV 221

14. Official Languages Commission 1956

15. All India Language Conference 1958
16. Conference of Chief Ministers 1961
17. National Integration Conference 1961
18. The Education Commission 1964-6
(Kothari Commission)
19. All India Seminar, Nagpur 1957
20. National Policy on Education 1968
21. NPE 1986
22. Acharya Ramamurty Commission 1990
 Further Reading

Aggarwal, J. C. (1984). Landmarks in the History of Modern Indian

Education, New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House.

Crystal, D. (1997). English as a Global Language. Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press.

Krishnaswamy, N and Archana S Burde. (1998). The Politics of

Indians' English: Linguistic Colonialism and the Expanding English
Empire. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Mahmood, S. (1895). A History of English Education in India. Delhi:

Idarah-I Adabiyat-I.

McCrum, R. W. Cran and R. MacNeil. (1986). The Story of

English. New York: Viking Penguin.

Nurullah, S and J.P. Naik. (1962). A Student's History of Education

in India (1810-1961). Delhi: Macmillan.

Pennycook, A. (1998). English and the Discourse of Colonialism.

New York: Routledge.

Philipson, R. (1992). Linguistic Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford

University Press.

Rawat, P. L. (1956). History of Indian Education. Agra: Ram Prasad

and Sons.

Sunder Rajan, R. (ed). (1992). The Lie ofthe Land: English Literary
Studies in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Tomilson, J. (1991). Cultural Imperialism. Baltimore: The Johns

Hopkins University Press.
 Further Reading 223

Tulsi Ram. (1983). Trading in Language: The Story of English in

India, Delhi: GDK Publishing.

Vishwanathan, G. (1989). Masks of Conquest: Literary Study and

British Rule in India, London: Faber and Faber.

wa Thiong'o, N. (1986). Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of

Language in African Literature, Portsmouth: Heinemann.
 Index

Abbot-Wood Committee (1936-7) Carey, William 10,24,

93 Central Institute of English (and
Adam, William 41, 42, 62 Foreign Languages) 126, 132,
Adam's Report 41,42, 62 133, 136, 145, 147
Alberuni 40 Charter Act 1813 15, 17, 18, 25,
Alexander, the Great 2,3 29, 30, 37, 52
All India Language Conference 1833 28
115, 121 1853 27,29,47,48,52,60,
All India Seminar (Nagpur 1957) China, language situation 113
126 classical languages 18, 22, 45, 53,
Anglicists 14, 15, 17, 22, 29, 30, 86
33, 40, 55 Clive, Robert 8, 25
Arab merchants 3 Conference of chief ministers
Arabic-5,15,18,20,29,33,34,35, (1961) 122
36,37,40,76,86,87,96, 113, Curriculum Development Centre
154, 165, 168, 176 115,J34-8, 148
Arya Samaj 89 Curzon, Lord 62, 65, 66, 68, 70,
Aryanization 2 106, 107
Aryans 1-3, 7, 96
Duff, Alexander 18,19,43
Auckland, Lord 44, 61
Dutch, the 5, 6, 8, 23
Auxiliary Committee, of the
Simon Commission 92 East India Company (EIC)
British 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16,23,
Banerjee Committee 147
24, 25, 28, 47, 52, 55, 56, 60,
Benares Sanskrit College 14, 18,
64, 104
19,24
French 7, 8
Besant, Annie 90
English Language Teaching
bilingual 85, 174
Institute (Allahabad) 126, 132
Brahmo Samaj 89
Britain, language situation 111-12 French 1,6, 7, 8, 23, 84,98
Buddhism 2,
Gandhi, Mahatma 42, 89, 93, 94,
Burke, Edmund 9,40
95, 100, 103, 123
Calcutta Madrassa 14, 18, 19, 24, General Committee of Public
46,59 Instruction 27, 29, 30
Calcutta University Commission globalization 141, 145
82-9 economic 159, 169, 173
 Index 225

cultural 175 Macaulay, Zachary 11,13, 23, 30

linguistic 146, 175, 178 Macaulay's Minute 30-47,57,59,
Gokak Committee Report 115, 118
131-2, 148 Malaviya, Pandit Madan Mohan 81
Gokhale, Gopal Krishna 80,81,103 Marco Polo 40
Government of India Resolution Mauryan Empire 3
1904 68-70, 106 Mayhew, Arthur 21,30,31, 62
1913 80-2 medium of instruction 12, 20, 21,
Grant, Charles 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 24, 27, 30, 45, 53, 55, 58, 68,
16, 23, 24, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 69, 70, 81, 82, 84, 85, 86, 87,
39, 100 88,92,93,94,96,112,114,117,
grants-in-aid 48,50,51,54,57,60, 119, 120, 123, 124, 147, 181
65,73 MELT Campaign 126
Greek influences 2 Mill, James 31
Minto,Lordl6,25,29,107
Hartog, Sir Philip 92 missionaries 10,11,12,13,15,16,
Hastings, Warren 8, 9, 14, 15, 17, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 25, 43, 54r
24, 25, 29 57, 60,
Hindi 1, 5, 113, 117, 118, 119, Mughal Empire 4,5
120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 130, Mughals 4, 96
131, 133, 135, 142, 144, 146, Muslim invaders 4
147, 148, 168, 174, 179
Hindu College (Calcutta) 20, 25, Nagpur. Conference (of the
45 Congress) 90,106
Hunter,SirWW56,57,60 National Education Policy, and
Hussain, Zakir 94 plan of action 115, 132, 133
National Integration Conference
Indian National Congress 61, 80, (1961) 115, 123
89,95 National Policy oh Education
Indians' English 142-6, 161-9 (1968) 115,130-1,132-4,148
nationalism
Japan, language situation 113
economic 100
Jones,SirWilliam8,40,99
Hindu cultural 99
Kothari Commission 115,123-5 political 100
Kothari,D.S. 123 native speaker 145,173,174, 175
Nehru, Jawaharlal 103, 105, 108,
linguistic genocide 175
113, 114, 121, 126
Macaulay, Lord Thomas
official associate language 122
Babington8,10,11,15,21,23,
Official Languages Act 147
28,29-47,48,62,65,100,156, Official Languages (Amendment
171, 172, 182 Act 1967) 148
226 The Story of English in India

Official Languages Commission Shastri, Lai Bahadur 121

121-2, 147 Soviet language problem 113
Orientalists 14,17, 22, 29,30,40, struggle between the English and
55 the French 7-9
Study Group Report 115, 131-2,
Persian influences 2
148
Plassey,Battleof8, 24
Portuguese 5,6,23 teaching of English in post-
Presidency College (Calcutta) 45 Independence India 29
three-language formula 55, 122,
Radhakrishnan, R 103
130, 133, 148
Rajagopalachari, C 103, 110, 121,
Trevelyan, Charles 15, 29, 39, 79,
146
100
Ramamurti Commission (1990)
115, 133-4, 148 University Grants Commission
Regional Institute of English 134, 146, 148
(Bangalore) 126 University Education Commission
Renaissance, Indian 20 114, 115-19, 146
Roy, Raja Rammohan 11, 20, 21, Urdu 5, 85, 86, 87,142
22, 25, 26 USSR, language situation 113
Sanskrit 1, 2, 3,10,11,14,15,18, Vasco da Gama 5, 23
19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 29, 36, 39, Vivekananda, Swami 89,103,107
40,45,55,75,85,86,87,96,99
Wilberforce, William 11,13,14
Sargent Report 95-6,106
Wilson, H.H. 39,40, 62
Secondary Education Commission
Wood's Despatch 47-51,64
115, 119-20, 146