Critically examine the link between the teaching of English and Literary Texts.

Although publishing was done in Indian languages as well, the spread of English education, and the slate patronage that it received at the expense of the vernacular languages, ensured the hegemony of publishing in English in colonial India. The market for English and in particular the English textbook is an immensely profitable one for publishers. Colonialist policies on education and the encouragement given to publishing were vastly instrumental in consolidating the influence of the publishing group on education.

The reasons for instituting English education in India and the reasons for the British involvement in publishing in India were ideologically similar. Both the processes were propelled by the colonialist requirement of an efficient administration. The officers of the East India Company were suspicious of native translators1 interpreters and they wished to handle their correspondence themselves. The first vernacular printing press was established in 1778 at Calcutta during Lord Hasting’s tenure as Viceroy.