Alternative forms of bilingual education in colonial India – a prologue to the methods era (1811-1920)

ABSTRACT

Learning English was popular in 18^th- and 19^th-century colonial India because, as Chaudhary (2012) depicts, the East India company’s offer of employment for Indians who knew English made English learning and thereby bilingualism much sought after. Citing examples of bilingual grammars and textbooks from the early 18^th century, Chaudhary (2012, 10) notes how, despite demand, it was difficult to obtain these books until the early 19^th century. By sourcing facts from scholarly work like this and looking at some available bilingual teaching material, this paper argues that although history weaves a narrative of colonial education as a monolithic, spearheaded imperialist endeavour, colonial education, specifically BELT, was a sporadic, heterogeneous, most times inclusive rivulet of colonial pedagogy which cannot be summarised as a uniform teaching method as specified in the later methods era. Specifically, the paper looks at English-Telugu bilingual teaching/learning material used in the Madras Presidency and English-Odiya bilingual learning material used in parts of Odisha in the Bengal Presidency.

KEYWORDS:

• India
• Colonial Era
• Bilingualism
• English Language education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

¹ In the context of modern education in India, bilingual education indicates a pedagogy where the L1 of students is used to promote/support the learning of L2 – English in this context – and other subjects in the same L2.

² The Madras presidency was fairly widespread, and had various languages like Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada being spoken and taught. This paper, however, will focus on only Telugu bilingualism that was practised in the area.

³ A geographical division made by the East India Company and later by the British government.

⁴ Bilingual grammars that emerged out of these collaborations became foundational in modernising Indian languages. Formal grammars, manuals of prose selections, and bilingual glossaries of Indian languages were prepared, quite after the model of English grammars and composition. For interesting instances, see Brown’s (1827) Aandhrageervanacchandamu: A Prosody of Telugu and Sanscrit Languages Explained, Rogers’s (1880) First Lessons in Telugu, Comprising Twenty-five Short Stories in Both the Colloquial and the Grammatical Styles, with Copious Notes and Translation by Col. H. T. Rogers; The Text Rendered Into Telugu from the Tamil Kathamanjari [of Tāṇḍavarāya Mudaliyar] by Maddali Lakshminarasayya Pantulu and Arden’s (1905) Progressive Grammar of Telugu Language: With Copious Exercises and Examples (2nd Edition). These bilingual grammars and literary selections had a heavy impact on Indian languages, causing the introduction of new words and sounds and the loss of a few.

⁵ The textbook committee reviewed textbooks used from grade 1 to 10. The report refers to any textbook written in English as ‘English textbooks’ and refers to material used for teaching English as ‘English Readers and Grammars’.

⁶ Also called the Paika Bidroha, this was an armed rebellion against the unfair and extortionist company rule in Odisha in 1817. It is now recognised as the first militant uprising against colonial rule in India.

⁷ Also described as the Gandhi of Odisha, Pandit Gopabandhu Das played a pivotal role in the formation of the separate province of Odisha. He is also known as an indefatigable fighter against British rule in India.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

R. Vennela

R. Vennela is an Assistant Professor in English at National Institute of Technology Warangal, India. She gained her PhD (University of Hyderabad) in the field of the history of bilingual English language learning and teaching in India. Her research interests include language policy, translation, lexicology, and the history of language education in India.

Sunita Mishra

Prof. Sunita Mishra teaches at the Centre for English Language Studies in the University of Hyderabad. She researches and supervises in areas of ELT, History of English education in India, critical pedagogy and discourse analysis. Presently, she is involved in projects related to the reception of English in Odisha. She is also interested in translating from Odiya to English.