End Page
Learning to Speak Contemporary Education Dialogue
16(1) 141–151, 2019
‘Good English’: © 2018 Education Dialogue Trust
Reprints and permissions:
Notes from an in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india
DOI: 10.1177/0973184918802878
English-Speaking journals.sagepub.com/home/ced
Class in Mumbai
Shrishti Malhotra1
Abstract
This article attempts to locate the ‘English-Speaking’ class in contempo-
rary India. By unpacking different aspects of one such class in Mumbai,
it sheds light on the ways in which students, teachers and those who
run the class view the ‘English-Speaking’ course and the ability to speak
‘good English’.
Keywords
Linguistic habitus/linguistic capital, education and social mobility, English
education in India, ‘Spoken English’/‘English-Speaking’ classes
The ability to speak ‘good English’ is an important asset that students
coming out of high-ranking elite English-medium schools in our country
possess. It is something that all sections of the society, rich or poor, see
as a marker of good social standing. Thus, it is not surprising that between
the elite private schools serving the rich and the government schools
catering to the poor, there has emerged an expanding category of private
schools in the middle of the spectrum that caters primarily to the lower
middle class (Krishnakumar, 2004). As a result of many shortcomings of
1
Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
Corresponding author:
Shrishti Malhotra, #18, Lower Flat, B. N. R. Officers’ Colony, 11, Garden Reach Road,
Kolkata 700043, West Bengal, India.
E-mail:
, 142 Contemporary Education Dialogue16(1)
government schools, several urban and rural households have increas-
ingly turned to this kind of private schooling, especially since the 1990s,
despite its drawbacks. Ironically, as long as the medium of instruction is
English, the government itself has aided the growth of such schools by
providing them with subsidies.
Just as relevant as the growth of these private English medium schools
is the proliferation of ‘English-Speaking’ classes across the country. From
NGOs to home tutors to private organisations, several entities offer
‘English-Speaking’ courses that can be completed within six months to a
year. English has emerged as an important skill for young Indians looking
at a range of professions, from those wanting to work as delivery persons
to those wanting to give interviews to do their post-graduation abroad.
Teaching one such ‘English-Speaking’ course for the Pratham Foundation
during a semester in my under-graduation got me interested in sociologi-
cally studying the ‘English-Speaking’ course and its implications.
In ‘Defining Globalization and Assessing Its Implications for Knowledge
and Education’, Nelly Stromquist and Karen Monkman (2014) argue
that with a compression of time and space under contemporary capitalism,
English has emerged as the ‘global language’. In such a context, they
speak about many new trends that seem to emerge, such as transnational
forms of education. One can see this in the Indian context, especially in
recent years, wherein the number of international schools has increased
considerably. Aiding the worldwide trend in favour of English education
is the colonial context of the introduction of English education in India.
In ‘Masks of Conquest’, Gauri Viswanathan (1989) writes about the
role that English education played in further dividing and indeed repro-
ducing social stratification in colonial India. She writes about Thomas
Macaulay and John and James Mill’s ‘Filtration Theory’ and their idea of
imparting English education only to a select class that possessed ‘leisure
time’ to study English. It was their hope that this class would then enable
the filtration of European values learnt through their study of English to
the Indian masses. Viswanathan examines the failure of this ‘Filtration
Theory’ in producing a uniform Indian society acculturated to the Empire.
However, when they witnessed the ‘degradation of English literature’
(through the rapid production and increasing popularity of popular nov-
els) that was taking place in England due to the spread of English among
the masses, colonial officials changed their minds. The Indian scenario of
a stratified society became appealing to them. They became content with
English education being limited to a select class of privileged few, while
the lower classes would learn and be educated in vernacular languages.
They saw this training of a specialised class as being sensible from a
Learning to Speak Contemporary Education Dialogue
16(1) 141–151, 2019
‘Good English’: © 2018 Education Dialogue Trust
Reprints and permissions:
Notes from an in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india
DOI: 10.1177/0973184918802878
English-Speaking journals.sagepub.com/home/ced
Class in Mumbai
Shrishti Malhotra1
Abstract
This article attempts to locate the ‘English-Speaking’ class in contempo-
rary India. By unpacking different aspects of one such class in Mumbai,
it sheds light on the ways in which students, teachers and those who
run the class view the ‘English-Speaking’ course and the ability to speak
‘good English’.
Keywords
Linguistic habitus/linguistic capital, education and social mobility, English
education in India, ‘Spoken English’/‘English-Speaking’ classes
The ability to speak ‘good English’ is an important asset that students
coming out of high-ranking elite English-medium schools in our country
possess. It is something that all sections of the society, rich or poor, see
as a marker of good social standing. Thus, it is not surprising that between
the elite private schools serving the rich and the government schools
catering to the poor, there has emerged an expanding category of private
schools in the middle of the spectrum that caters primarily to the lower
middle class (Krishnakumar, 2004). As a result of many shortcomings of
1
Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
Corresponding author:
Shrishti Malhotra, #18, Lower Flat, B. N. R. Officers’ Colony, 11, Garden Reach Road,
Kolkata 700043, West Bengal, India.
E-mail:
, 142 Contemporary Education Dialogue16(1)
government schools, several urban and rural households have increas-
ingly turned to this kind of private schooling, especially since the 1990s,
despite its drawbacks. Ironically, as long as the medium of instruction is
English, the government itself has aided the growth of such schools by
providing them with subsidies.
Just as relevant as the growth of these private English medium schools
is the proliferation of ‘English-Speaking’ classes across the country. From
NGOs to home tutors to private organisations, several entities offer
‘English-Speaking’ courses that can be completed within six months to a
year. English has emerged as an important skill for young Indians looking
at a range of professions, from those wanting to work as delivery persons
to those wanting to give interviews to do their post-graduation abroad.
Teaching one such ‘English-Speaking’ course for the Pratham Foundation
during a semester in my under-graduation got me interested in sociologi-
cally studying the ‘English-Speaking’ course and its implications.
In ‘Defining Globalization and Assessing Its Implications for Knowledge
and Education’, Nelly Stromquist and Karen Monkman (2014) argue
that with a compression of time and space under contemporary capitalism,
English has emerged as the ‘global language’. In such a context, they
speak about many new trends that seem to emerge, such as transnational
forms of education. One can see this in the Indian context, especially in
recent years, wherein the number of international schools has increased
considerably. Aiding the worldwide trend in favour of English education
is the colonial context of the introduction of English education in India.
In ‘Masks of Conquest’, Gauri Viswanathan (1989) writes about the
role that English education played in further dividing and indeed repro-
ducing social stratification in colonial India. She writes about Thomas
Macaulay and John and James Mill’s ‘Filtration Theory’ and their idea of
imparting English education only to a select class that possessed ‘leisure
time’ to study English. It was their hope that this class would then enable
the filtration of European values learnt through their study of English to
the Indian masses. Viswanathan examines the failure of this ‘Filtration
Theory’ in producing a uniform Indian society acculturated to the Empire.
However, when they witnessed the ‘degradation of English literature’
(through the rapid production and increasing popularity of popular nov-
els) that was taking place in England due to the spread of English among
the masses, colonial officials changed their minds. The Indian scenario of
a stratified society became appealing to them. They became content with
English education being limited to a select class of privileged few, while
the lower classes would learn and be educated in vernacular languages.
They saw this training of a specialised class as being sensible from a
