Quest Journals Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Science Volume 13 ~ Issue 9 (September 2025) pp: 166-170 ISSN(Online):2321-9467 www.questjournals.org DOI: 10.35629/9467-1309166170 www.questjournals.org 166 | Page Research Paper The Politics of English Literary Studies in Colonial India: A Critical Reading of Gauri Vishwanathan’s “The Beginnings of English Literary Study in British India” Dr. Girija Suri Assistant Professor Amity University, Gurgaon Abstract This essay explores Vishwanathan’s arguments about the role of Orientalism and Anglicism in shaping colonial education policy, the contradictory interplay between missionary and governmental agendas, and the ways in which English literature functioned as an effective instrument of social regulation. It further considers how her thesis resonates with and diverges from other postcolonial frameworks, notably Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978), Homi Bhabha’s theorization of ambivalence, and Partha Chatterjee’s critique of colonial modernity. Finally, it reaffirms the significance of Vishwanathan’s intervention in reimagining postcolonial literary studies, situating her as a foundational thinker who revealed the entanglement of English studies with the politics of empire. Keywords: colonial, Orientalism, Anglicanism, English, postcolonial, literature, power Received 08 Sep., 2025; Revised 17 Sep., 2025; Accepted 19 Sep., 2025 © The author(s) 2025. Published with open access at www.questjournas.org In her seminal essay “The Beginnings of English Literary Study in British India” (1987), Gauri Vishwanathan locates the historical moment when English literary studies were introduced in India and explores the political, cultural, and ideological conditions that enabled their institutionalization. Drawing on the Gramscian notion of hegemony, which emphasizes domination through consent rather than coercion, Vishwanathan demonstrates how English literature became a crucial tool for colonial governance. Rather than emerging organically as a neutral academic discipline, English literary study was imported to India as part of Britain’s imperial project. It worked to naturalize British authority by representing the colonizer as rational, humane, and just, while simultaneously legitimizing colonial domination through cultural persuasion. As she later elaborates in her book Masks of Conquest: Literary Study and British Rule in India (1989), the discipline of English literature was forged not in the universities of England but in the colonial encounter, where it served as an apparatus of control. This essay explores Vishwanathan’s arguments about the role of Orientalism and Anglicism in shaping colonial education policy, the contradictory interplay between missionary and governmental agendas, and the ways in which English literature functioned as an effective instrument of social regulation. It further considers how her thesis resonates with and diverges from other postcolonial frameworks, notably Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978), Homi Bhabha’s theorization of ambivalence, and Partha Chatterjee’s critique of colonial modernity. Finally, it reaffirms the significance of Vishwanathan’s intervention in reimagining postcolonial literary studies, situating her as a foundational thinker who revealed the entanglement of English studies with the politics of empire. Colonial Education and the Charter Act of 1813 The institutionalization of English literary studies in India cannot be separated from the political shifts of the early nineteenth century. The Charter Act of 1813 marks an important turning point. It proposed greater responsibility for Britain in the education of its Indian subjects and loosened restrictions on missionary activity.