Post-Colonial Concerns and English Literature Essay Example

Post Post-Colonial Concerns and English Literature Essay Post-Colonial Concerns and English Literature Essay Gauri Viswanathan’s essay â€Å"The Beginnings of English Literary Study in British India† provides a compelling account of the ideological motivations behind the introduction of English literary education in British India. In her essay, she argues that â€Å"literary study gained enormous cultural strength through its development in a period of territorial expansion and conquest, and the subsequent institutionalization of the discipline in England itself took on a shape and an ideological content developed in the colonial context† (Viswanathan, 431 ). Meaning, colonial policies played a key role in the perpetuation of and institutionalization of English language in India which was then under the rule of Britain, which showed no reservations about exercising its authority in making its colony in India more amenable to its rule. Gauri analyzes the shifts in the curriculum of English Literature devised by British colonial officers and connects the developments within them to Gramsci’s concept of hegemony and debates over the objectives of English education both among the British administrators, as well as between missionaries and colonial officials. According to her,British administrators introduced English literary study in India in the early nineteenth century to improve the moral knowledge of Indians. But, since Britain followed a policy of religious impartiality and prohibited the coerced conversion of Hindus and Muslims to Christianity under the apprehension that such an action would incite mass uprisings. Therefore, Christian teachings could not be used in India to subjugate the natives in spite of its success rate in acquiring submission of the lower classes back home in Britain. In order to resolve this dilemma, Viswanathan observes, colonial officials revived Charles Grant’s tract â€Å"Observations on the State of Society among the Asiatic subjects of Great Britain† (1792) which, although a severely critical condemnat