English studies in India

Its past and its future

Bibliographic Data

ID12880451
AuthorsSambudha Sen (0009-0002-6216-4580, Shiv Nadar University, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume20
Issue10-12
Publication date2023-10-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLiterature Compass (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1741-4113 • E-ISSN: 1741-4113
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/lic3.12753
OpenAlexW4390105107
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited2

This essay argues that English departments in India have had two advantages that their counterparts in the west lack. First, the ability to speak and write correctly in English is understood as a social and professional resource and this prompts large numbers of college students to opt for an English major. Second, English literature has unfolded, historically among several highly developed literatures in our regional languages and this, in conjuction with post‐colonial theory, has opened up vast new fields of research for English professors in India. Improved salaries and research facilities after the mid‐eighties began attracting excellent faculty to our best English departments and, by the end of the twentieth century, some of these were poised to compete with the best departments of the world. Despite this, Indian universities are perenially plagued by political interference and corruption and this has made it impossible for several excellent departments and indeed entire universities to sustain excellence

Art · Colonialism · English language · English literature · Excellence · Language change · Literature · Mathematics education · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Resource (disambiguation · Sociology · Computer Science · Indian History and Philosophy · Law · Psychology · South Asian Studies and Conflicts · South Asian Studies and Diaspora

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