Colonial Legacy of Language Politics and Medium of Instruction Policy in India

The sphere of language politics within India has been a complex one, and rightly so, owing to the country’s rich and immense linguistic diversity. Naturally, this complexity has trickled into the Medium of Instruction (MOI) used in Indian schools. Hindi, English, and state languages dominate the school MOI undermining the enormous Language and Mother Tongue diversity in India. Even though the Indian Constitution and the three National Education Policies have emphasized Mother Tongue/Local language as the MOI at the primary education level, there continues to be a divergence between policy and the actual MOI used in government and private schools in India. In this article, we argue that the political hegemony of languages and its reflection in the MOI at present derives from the historic domination of classical languages in the pre-colonial era and its replacement by English in the colonial era. We trace the MOI in indigenous schools of the 19th Century and assert that their elasticity and adaptability was suited to local conditions. We argue that formal western education created rigidity and homogeneity through centralized curriculum and common language. We discuss the ambivalence of East India Company and British India’s policies on medium of Instruction in English and Vernacular languages. We highlight different phases of anglicization of Education in India, and its adoption and expansion by Indians. We argue that despite attempts at reinvention of education by national leaders and push for Mother Tongue as MOI in the early 20th century, English continued to dominate Indian education.