Literary study entered colonial curricula primarily as a language-teaching tool
Evidence
To the extent that English was imposed by the British, it was imposed primarily as the language of administration, management, modern professions such as law and medicine, technical fields, central surveys, and so on. The introduction of literary texts into various sorts of syllabi was primarily a means towards such ends, the zeal of particular ideologues notwithstanding. Inculcating a belief in Christianity or in the grandeur of British civilization was obviously an important goal for a colonizing power that saw itself as carrying out a civilizing mission among the heathen, and zealots doubtless made much of it. But a traditional British pedagogy also held that the best way to improve one’s knowledge of a language, especially a foreign language, once you have mastered the basic vocabulary and simple grammar, is through stylistically accessible poems such as Wordsworth’s ‘Lucy’ sequence, or through fables or historical romances. The role of literary compositions in the school curricula for Indian children was one expression of that pedagogy, but language teaching for British personnel at Fort William College was also organized according to that same principle. Thus a number of books, such as Aaraish-e-Mehfil or Bagh-o-Bahar, which eventually came to be included among the key classics of Urdu prose, were initially composed as textbooks for British personnel who needed to learn the language and know its cultural ambience. It was similarly believed that a mastery of Milton’s poetry might or might not make a Christian out of anyone, but it would certainly improve one’s understanding of the English grammar and one’s ability to write the compound sentence. It was in the teaching of the compound sentence that the ways of God were seen to be highly justifiable. — Aijaz Ahmad, In Theory, 520
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to the history of English literary studies as a pedagogy of empire, echoing how the author elsewhere frames literary canon formation as institutional rather than aesthetic.
Related
- English literature has shaped the very categories of modern Indian thought (similarity 0.82)
- Only a materialist-comparatist frame can break the colonial grip on Indian English Studies. (similarity 0.81)
- English’s colonial literary impact came through genres, not composition (similarity 0.79)
- English, not any Indian language, forms India’s only unified national literary intelligentsia. (similarity 0.78)
- Colonial administrative needs for language training generated Indian prose fiction (similarity 0.78)