Rise and Spread of English in India

This dissertation entitled as “Rise and Spread of English in British India" examined the history of rise and spread of English in British India from an Indian perspective. The re-reading will provide the current scenario of English as a subject of study in the independent India. Lots of changes it had witnessed from the day it had been dragged into India due to the acceptance of Macaulayan Minute on Education (1835). Macaulay had favoured English to be introduced in India just because the British needed the clerks for administration and mediators to carry out their orders in British India. Taking Macaulay’s Minutes on Education (1835) as a primary resource, this dissertation critically compares it with gradually emerged trends in the field of English studies in post-independent India. The re-reading from Macaulay to Viswanathan and Alan Durant will produce a link through which we can easily connect the changes occurred in the field of English in India from its very limited area ‘English Literature’ to the fresh and emerging area ‘English studies’ without any fix boundaries and limitations.