Rethinking English Studies in India

Abstract

The teaching of English literature with contrived aims and objectives has become a cultural-educational reality in India. The reasons for its introduction as a colonial project and its sustenance and maintenance now in postcolonial India as an academic discipline in its own right should be different, or else the academics will be accused of perpetuating the colonial mindset among free citizens. Aims and methods of teaching English literature need to be interrogated with the changing times and needs though such an interrogation might inevitably entail self-criticism on the part of English literature teachers who very often assume to be qualified as purveyors of literary epistemology without any formal and professional training. This paper aims at analyzing the aims and objective of English literary education in India, scrutinizing its pedagogical practices, and integrating literary theories with literary studies as a means of achieving the (mis)stated goals.