Abstract
Seventy years after the independence of India, as the tides of postcolonialism ebb, as debates on nativism have matured and as English is claiming its own ground without being tethered to its colonial past, it is perhaps an opportune time to initiate a discussion on English studies from fresh perspectives. This chapter, the introductory one to the volume, attempts to chart the history, ideological motivations, contemporary concerns and future directions of English studies in India. In the first part, the entire spectrum of English studies is re-presented – its colonial past, the present scenario and the challenges that it is now faced with. The uneven, diffuse terrain and the blurred borders of the discipline are discussed and debated with a view to redefine the trajectory of English studies in the present Indian context. The second part of the chapter has critical glosses on the contributions to the volume and aims to acquaint the reader with issues that the volume takes up for discussion.
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Notes
- 1.
The phrases were used by Prof. Aniket Jaaware, formerly at the University of Pune, in his keynote address delivered at the International Conference on Research Trends in English Studies organised by the Department of English, University College of Arts and Centre for Education and Research, Tumkur University, Tumkur, 26–27 July 2013.
- 2.
Some of the significant works dealing with English studies are E. M. W. Tillyard’s The Muse Unchained: An Intimate Account of the Revolution in English Studies at Cambridge, D. J. Palmer’s The Rise of English Studies, Francis Mulhern’s The Moment of ’Scrutiny’, Re-Reading English edited by Peter Widdowson, Chris Baldick’s The Social Mission of English Studies 1848–1932, Terry Eagleton’s Literary Theory: An Introduction, and Gerard Graff’s Professing Literature: An Institutional History.
- 3.
Chapter 1 of Terry Eagleton’s Literary Theory: An Introduction titled “The Rise of English” contextualises the growth of the discipline in terms of the “meta-discourse” of theory (viii).
- 4.
Some of the major works dealing with the origin and development of English studies in India include C. D. Narasimhaiah’s Moving Frontiers of English Studies in India (1977) and English Studies in India: Widening Horizons (2002); Gauri Viswanathan’s Masks of Conquest: Literary Studies and British Rule in India; Rethinking English: Essays in Literature, Language and History edited by Svati Joshi; The Lie of the Land: English Literary Studies in India edited by Rajeshwari Sundar Rajan; The Rhetoric of English India by Sara Suleri Goodyear; and Subject to Change: Teaching Literatures in the Nineties, edited by Susie Tharu.
- 5.
Even if individual departments of English literature were to enforce some changes on the lines suggested above, they would place their own students at a distinct disadvantage, since the questions asked in the National Eligibility Test for lectureship in the country (conducted by University Grants Commission, New Delhi) are also based primarily on British literature, with European, American and Indian English literature and contemporary theory forming a minor part of the questions. Questions about the disciplinary background of English studies in India are seldom asked, while questions relating to the backgrounds of prescribed canonical texts are ubiquitous.
- 6.
The committee comprised senior academics like Sukanta Chaudhuri (Jadavpur University) who was the convener of the CDC, C. T. Indra (University of Madras), Prashant K. Sinha (University of Pune) and Rajiva Verma (University of Delhi). Incidentally, this was also the last policy planning body to have been constituted in this context.
- 7.
The UGC CDC has drawn up a fairly representative and exhaustive list of literature from various Indian languages, which creates a ready corpus of texts that could be used in the transition from “English language and literature” through “literatures in English” to programmes like “literature and culture” and “literary studies”, which would highlight the decolonizing process.
- 8.
Interestingly, most texts dealing with the history of English literature were written in the last two centuries overlapping with the period of colonial expansionism. For a critique of literary histories, see Perkins, D. (1993). Is literary history possible?. Baltimore: John Hopkins Press.
- 9.
The reference is to the UGC guidelines published in the Gazette notification titled “UGC Notification on Minimum Qualifications for Appointment of Teachers and Other Academic Staff in Universities and Colleges and Measures for the Maintenance of Standards in Higher Education 2010”, accessed from the UGC website https://www.ugc.ac.in/oldpdf/regulations/englishgazette.pdf(accessed 12 March 2018).
- 10.
Parts of the introduction are based on Banibrata Mahanta’s paper “Disciplining English Studies in India: A Critique”, published in Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences 8. 1–2 (2011): 129–140.
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Mahanta, B., Sharma, R.B. (2019). English Studies in India: Reviewing Borders, Remapping the Terrain. In: Mahanta, B., Sharma, R. (eds) English Studies in India. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1525-1_1
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