Language and Education in Nineteenth-Century Odisha

Malik, Ramesh Chandra; Mishra, Sunita

doi:10.4324/9781315542454-15

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“…How English was taught and learned by imperial actors and colonial subjects in 17th-19th-century India has been insufficiently addressed in previous historical research (though for some recent exceptions see Chaudhary 2017;Mallik & Mishra 2017;Mukherjee 2017). In the absence of studies which look not just at policy but at questions of language use in specific educational contexts, a prevalent view has emerged that colonial English language education in India was only in English, with an imposed aim of anglicising the masses (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bilingual English teaching in colonial India: the case of John Murdoch’s work in Madras Presidency, 1855–1875

Vennela

Smith

2019

Language & History

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There is a prevalent conception about colonial Indian educationin the absence of much empirical research into specific contextsthat it was carried out only in English with the aim of anglicising the masses. While it is true that there were colonial motives of acculturation embedded in English language teaching and English-medium instruction, the idea that English language learning was exclusively monolingual is historically inaccurate. Indeed, the survival of bilingual teaching materials prepared in the nineteenth century for use in colonial schools suggests that, outside elite English-medium instruction, the use of Indian languages was common in English teaching. To explore this possibility further, this article focuses on the work and ideas of a prominent colonial educationalist, John Murdoch (1818-1904), with a focus on the schoolbooks he was associated with and on his recommendations for bilingual English teaching in the colonial schools of Madras Presidency. Murdoch's ideas on the use of local languages in teaching reveal complexities and intricacies which have been underexplored in previous histories of colonial Indian education.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%