India’s 190-year-old romance with English now percolating to small towns

Every tenth English-speaker in the world is Indian

- BY S VENKAT NARAYAN

Indians’ craze for the English language, an urban phenomenon till a few decades ago, is now percolating to tier 2 and tier 3 cities as well as rural areas.

Proficiency in reading, speaking and writing English has become necessary for upward mobility and global connectivity. English proficiency provides access to global opportunities, including jobs, higher education, and international trade.

Several edtech startups have now sprouted across small town India, and kids as well as their parents are now learning from these platforms.

English was introduced in India during British colonial period for instruction into the Indian education system in 1835, when Lord (Thomas Babington) Macaulay, a British administrator and member of the Supreme Council of India, implemented the English Education Act.

He advocated for English as the medium of instruction in Indian schools. His goal was to create a class of Indians who would be “Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions, in morals and in intellect.”

Macaulay believed that English would serve as a means of unifying India under British rule and would create a class of intermediaries between the British and the Indian masses.

The British established schools, colleges, and administrative institutions where English was the primary medium of instruction. After Independence in 1947, India retained English for administrative, legal, and educational purposes due to its deep institutional presence.

India adopted English as an associate official language alongside Hindi under the Official Languages Act of 1963. English is still widely used in government, judiciary and higher education. It remains a key part of India’s identity in the modern world.