Colonialism In English Essay

At the surface level language seems to be simply a system of sentences, set of patterns or a fixed set of rules. However, language is not always transparent and innocent the way it seems. The real operation or practice of language results in discourse which generates power. To put it simply, discourses are manipulative use of language that shapes our views, ideas and opinions. It establishes and naturalizes certain norms of behavior, conduct, etc., which are unquestionable. As Pramod K Nayar echoes Foucault’s notion that certain authorities in the society “constructed, organized, shared and used” knowledge “through particular forms of speech, writing and language – or what is called discourse” (From Structuralism 35) in order to control a particular

However, the role of Colonialism in the expansion of English is immensely noteworthy. In fact, writers like Gauri Viswanathan, Ania Loomba and others are of the opinion that the discipline of English literary studies was an invention of Colonial India. Viswanathan states that “English literature appeared as a subject in the curriculum of the colonies long before it was institutionalized in the home country” (Masks 3). She further points out that while England was still reigned by the study of classical literature, English “as the study of culture and not simply the study of language” (3) has already made its entry into British Indian curriculum. English was primarily introduced in the colony to serve the needs of the British administration; to educate a class of Indians who could function as “interpreters between the British administrators and the millions of Indians they governed”. To put in Lord Macaulay’s words, “a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, opinions, in morals, and in intellect” (quoted in Phillipson 2007:110). According to Viswanathan, the British need for a disciplinary branch of knowledge emanated from its compulsion to perform the task of administering their colonial subjects. Similarly, Ania Loomba states that “The rise of literary studies as a ‘discipline’ of study in British universities was in fact linked to the perceived needs of colonial administrators” (Colonialism 75). However, this “disguised form of authority” (Masks 23) has complemented as a mask that concealed the actual terrors of colonialism. These discourses of administration are actually powerful devices of subjugating the native culture. By imposing their language upon the natives the colonizers conquered the cultural space of the natives. As Ngugi Wa Thiong’O says, “Language carries culture and culture carries,