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Mimicry, Masculinity, and the Mystique of Indian English: Western India, 1870–1900

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2009

Shefali Chandra
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Abstract

This article describes the manner in which the English language took root in modern India. It does so by using gender as the unit of analysis. Building a feminist analysis on the symbolic role of culture, the author traces the history of English education in Bombay and Poona. The rise of English as the language of power in the nineteenth century was actively enabled—and further legitimated—by the patriarchal interests of Indian class and caste formation. The author analyzes English- and Marathi-language memoirs, school reports, debates in the “native” press on the content of the English education curriculum, and other cultural productions by men and women detailing their experiences and opinions of English education. Based on those sources, the author demonstrates that upper-caste masculine authority came to be yoked to the charisma of colonial English and, with that, subtly coded the English language as masculine. Consequently, the power of Indian English emerged from its ability to evade charges of cultural mimicry for certain classes, to organize native gender difference, and to express and orient (hetero)sexual desire.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 68 , Issue 1 , February 2009 , pp. 199 - 225
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2009

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References

List of References

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Director of Public Instruction (1882–1910), Report of Native Newspapers (RNN) for Bombay Presidency (some reports contained in Judicial Department Files [JD], Government of Bombay Presidency)Google Scholar
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Jessawalla, Dosebai. 1911. The Story of My Life. Bombay: Times Press.Google Scholar
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Joshi, Svati, ed. 1991. Rethinking English: Essays in Literature, Language, History. New Delhi: Trianka.Google Scholar
Kanitkar, Narayan Bapuji. 1886. TaruniShikshanNatika, athva adhunik tarunishikshan vas tri svatantra yanche bhavishyakathan [A play on the modern education of young girls, or a prophecy on modern education and female freedom] Pune: Shri Shivaji Press.Google Scholar
Kosambi, Meera. 2007. Crossing Thresholds: Feminist Essays in Social History. Delhi: Permanent Black.Google Scholar
Kumar, Krishna. 2005. Political Agenda of Education: A Study of Colonialist and Nationalist Ideas. 2nd ed. New Delhi: Sage.Google Scholar
Luhrmann, T. M. 1996. The Good Parsi: The Fate of a Colonial Elite in a Postcolonial Society. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Macaulay, Thomas Babington. 1835. “Minute on Indian Education.” In Thomas Babington Macaulay: Selected Writings, ed. Clive, John and Pinnet, Thomas, 237–56. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972.Google Scholar
McCully, Bruce Tiebout. 1940. English Education and the Origins of Indian Nationalism. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
McDonald, Ellen. 1966. “English Education and Social Reform in Late Nineteenth Century Bombay: A Case Study in the Transmission of a Cultural Ideal.” Journal of Asian Studies 25 (3): 453–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mote, B. B. 1972. Vishrabdh Sharada [Light on the past]. Bombay: Popular Prakashan.Google Scholar
N. A. [no author]. 1884. Proceedings of a Deputation from the People of Poona Waited by Appointment Upon His Excellency the Governor in the Council Hall, Poona, on Saturday the 9th of August, Re: a High School for Native Girls. Bombay: Printed at the Bombay Gazette Steam Press.Google Scholar
N. A. [no author]. 1885. Report of the Proceedings Held on the 29th September 1884 in the Town Hall, Hirabaug, for the Distribution of Prizes to the Successful Students of the High School for Native Girls POONA, Under the Presidency of H. H. Maharaja Sayaji Rao Gaekavad, of Baroda. Poona: Printed at the Orphanage Press by C. Birch.Google Scholar
Naregal, Veena. 2001. Language Politics, Elites, and the Public Sphere. Delhi: Permanent Black.Google Scholar
New English School. 1883. The Annual Report of the New English School Poona for 1883. Poona: New English School.Google Scholar
Nikambe, Shevanti. 1895. Ratanbai: A Sketch of a Bombay High Caste Hindu Young Wife. London: Marshall Brothers.Google Scholar
Panse, Venubai. 1934. PragatiPathavar: Svarn Mahotsav Smarak Granth. High School for Indian Girls [The Golden Jubilee report for the High School for Indian Girls]. Pune: High School for Indian Girls.Google Scholar
Phadke, Y. D. 1982. V. K. Chiplunkar. New Delhi: National Book Trust.Google Scholar
Pollock, Sheldon. 1998. “The Cosmopolitan Vernacular.” Journal of Asian Studies 57 (1): 6–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramanna, Mridula. 1985. “The Content of Curriculum: Bombay's Educational Institutions, 1824–1854.” Indica 32 (1): 41–56.Google Scholar
Ranade, Pratibha. 1999. Stri Prashnanchi Charcha: Ekonisave Shatak [The debate over the woman question: The nineteenth century]. Bombay: Popular Prakashan.Google Scholar
Ranade, Ramabai. 1910. Aamchya aayushyatil kahee aathavni [Some memories of our life together]. Repr., Mumbai: Anubhav Publications, 1993.Google Scholar
Reiner, I. M., and Goldberg., N. M 1966. Tilak and the Struggle for Indian Freedom. New Delhi: People's Publishing House.Google Scholar
Sangari, Kumkum. 1999. Politics of the Possible: Essays on Gender, History, Narrative, Colonial English. New Delhi: Tulika.Google Scholar
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. 2003. Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Seth, Sanjay. 2007. Subject Lessons: The Western Education of Colonial India. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Spivak, Gayatri. 1993. “The Burden of English.” In Orientalism and the Postcolonial Predicament, ed. Breckenridge, Carol and van der Veer, Peter, 135–57. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Sunder Rajan, Rajeswari. 1992. “Fixing English: Nation, Language, Subject.” In Lie of the Land: English Literary Studies in India, ed. Rajan, Rajeswari Sunder, 7–28. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Trivedi, Harish. 1995. Colonial Transactions: English Literature and India. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Tucker, Richard P. 1972. Ranade and the Roots of Indian Nationalism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Vanita, Ruth. 2002. Queering India: Same Sex Love and Eroticism in Indian Society and Culture. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Viswanathan, Gauri. 1989. Masks of Conquest: Literary Study and British Rule in India. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Report of the Proceedings of the Bombay Education Society, 1825–40, BombayGoogle Scholar
Bombay Gazette and Overland SummaryGoogle Scholar
Education Department Files (EDF), Government of Bombay PresidencyGoogle Scholar
Director of Public Instruction (1882–1910), Report of Native Newspapers (RNN) for Bombay Presidency (some reports contained in Judicial Department Files [JD], Government of Bombay Presidency)Google Scholar
KesariGoogle Scholar
MahrattaGoogle Scholar
Mumbai Indu PrakashGoogle Scholar
The Native OpinionGoogle Scholar
Agashe, J. A. 1890. SadgunManjari: Eka Hatbhagya Strichye Charitra [One replete with virtuous qualities: A sketch of one misfortunate woman]. Pune: Aryabhushan Press.Google Scholar
Ahmed, Sara. 2003. “Feminist Futures.” In A Concise Companion to Feminist Theory, ed. Eagleton, Mary, 236–54. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Anagol, Padma. 2005. The Emergence of Feminism in India, 1850–1920. Burlington, VT: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Bhabha, Homi K. 1993. “Of Mimicry and Man: The Ambivalence of Colonial Discourse.” In The Location of Culture, by Bhabha, Homi K, 121–31. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Braidotti, Rosi. 1994. Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Burton, Antoinette. 1998. “From Child Bride to ‘Hindoo Lady’: Rukhmabai and the Debate on Sexual Respectability in Imperial Britain.” American Historical Review 103 (4): 1119–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butler, Judith. 1997. Excitable Speech: A Politics of the Performative. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Butler, Judith. 1999. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. 10th anniversary ed. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Chakravarti, Uma. 1998. Rewriting History: The Life and Times of Pandita Ramabai. New Delhi: Kali for Women.Google Scholar
Chandra, Shefali. 2007. “Gendering English: Gender, Sexuality and the Language of Desire in Western India 1850–1940.” Gender and History 19 (2): 284–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chatterjee, Partha. 1993. The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Chiplunkar, V. S. 1882a. “Aamchya deshachi Sthithhi” [The condition/plight of our country]. In Nibandhmaleteel Teen Nibandh, Vishnushastri Chiplunkar [Three essays from the Garland of Essays] ed. Phadkule, Nirmalkumar, 79–164. Pune: V. N. Bhandari, 1975.Google Scholar
Chiplunkar, V. S. 1882b. “Itihaas” [History]. In Nibandhmaleteel Teen Nibandh, Vishnushastri Chiplunkar [Three essays from the Garland of Essays], ed. Phadkule, Nirmalkumar, 28–78. Pune: V. N. Bhandari, 1975.Google Scholar
Cixous, Hélène. 1975. “The Laugh of the Medusa.” In Feminist Theory: A Reader, 2nd ed., ed. Kolmar, Wendy and Bartkowski, Frances, 256–62. New York: McGraw Hill, 2005.Google Scholar
Davne, Martand Narayan. 1891. Aadhunik Shikshan Vipak Natika [A musical depiction of modern education]. Serialized in Natya Kathamala 4 (1–5). Pen: Sudhakar Press.Google Scholar
Derrida, Jacques. 1967. “Of Grammatology.” In A Derrida Reader: Between the Blinds, ed. Kamuf, Peggy, 31–58. New York: Columbia University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Deshpande, Prachi. 2007. Creative Pasts: Historical Memory and Identity in Western India, 1700–1960. New York: Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dobbin, Christine. 1972. Urban Leadership in Western India: Politics and Community in Bombay City 1840–1885. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Elphinstone, Mountstuart. 1823. “Minute on Education.” Repr., Kolhapur: Shree Maharani Tarabai Teacher's College, 1923.Google Scholar
Farooqui, Amar. 2006. Opium City: The Making of Early Victorian Bombay. Gurgaon: Three Essays Collective.Google Scholar
Freud, Sigmund. 1925. “Some Psychical Consequences of the Anatomical Distinction Between the Sexes.” In The Freud Reader, ed. Gay, Peter, 670–78. New York: W. W. Norton, 1989.Google Scholar
Gandhi, Leela. 2006. Affective Communities: Anticolonial thought, Fin-de-Siècle Radicalism, and the Politics of Friendship. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Gandhi, Mohandas K. 1927. An Autobiography, or the Story of my Experiments with Truth. Trans. Desai, M. Ahmedabad: Navjivan Publishing House, 1996.Google Scholar
Haddap Bahekleli Taruni, Vithal Vaman. 1924. Bahekleli Taruni [The blundering/corrupted young girl]. Mumbai: Mauj Office.Google Scholar
Jessawalla, Dosebai. 1911. The Story of My Life. Bombay: Times Press.Google Scholar
Joshi, Priya. 2002. In Another Country: Colonialism, Culture and the English Novel in India. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Joshi, Svati, ed. 1991. Rethinking English: Essays in Literature, Language, History. New Delhi: Trianka.Google Scholar
Kanitkar, Narayan Bapuji. 1886. TaruniShikshanNatika, athva adhunik tarunishikshan vas tri svatantra yanche bhavishyakathan [A play on the modern education of young girls, or a prophecy on modern education and female freedom] Pune: Shri Shivaji Press.Google Scholar
Kosambi, Meera. 2007. Crossing Thresholds: Feminist Essays in Social History. Delhi: Permanent Black.Google Scholar
Kumar, Krishna. 2005. Political Agenda of Education: A Study of Colonialist and Nationalist Ideas. 2nd ed. New Delhi: Sage.Google Scholar
Luhrmann, T. M. 1996. The Good Parsi: The Fate of a Colonial Elite in a Postcolonial Society. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Macaulay, Thomas Babington. 1835. “Minute on Indian Education.” In Thomas Babington Macaulay: Selected Writings, ed. Clive, John and Pinnet, Thomas, 237–56. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972.Google Scholar
McCully, Bruce Tiebout. 1940. English Education and the Origins of Indian Nationalism. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
McDonald, Ellen. 1966. “English Education and Social Reform in Late Nineteenth Century Bombay: A Case Study in the Transmission of a Cultural Ideal.” Journal of Asian Studies 25 (3): 453–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mote, B. B. 1972. Vishrabdh Sharada [Light on the past]. Bombay: Popular Prakashan.Google Scholar
N. A. [no author]. 1884. Proceedings of a Deputation from the People of Poona Waited by Appointment Upon His Excellency the Governor in the Council Hall, Poona, on Saturday the 9th of August, Re: a High School for Native Girls. Bombay: Printed at the Bombay Gazette Steam Press.Google Scholar
N. A. [no author]. 1885. Report of the Proceedings Held on the 29th September 1884 in the Town Hall, Hirabaug, for the Distribution of Prizes to the Successful Students of the High School for Native Girls POONA, Under the Presidency of H. H. Maharaja Sayaji Rao Gaekavad, of Baroda. Poona: Printed at the Orphanage Press by C. Birch.Google Scholar
Naregal, Veena. 2001. Language Politics, Elites, and the Public Sphere. Delhi: Permanent Black.Google Scholar
New English School. 1883. The Annual Report of the New English School Poona for 1883. Poona: New English School.Google Scholar
Nikambe, Shevanti. 1895. Ratanbai: A Sketch of a Bombay High Caste Hindu Young Wife. London: Marshall Brothers.Google Scholar
Panse, Venubai. 1934. PragatiPathavar: Svarn Mahotsav Smarak Granth. High School for Indian Girls [The Golden Jubilee report for the High School for Indian Girls]. Pune: High School for Indian Girls.Google Scholar
Phadke, Y. D. 1982. V. K. Chiplunkar. New Delhi: National Book Trust.Google Scholar
Pollock, Sheldon. 1998. “The Cosmopolitan Vernacular.” Journal of Asian Studies 57 (1): 6–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ramanna, Mridula. 1985. “The Content of Curriculum: Bombay's Educational Institutions, 1824–1854.” Indica 32 (1): 41–56.Google Scholar
Ranade, Pratibha. 1999. Stri Prashnanchi Charcha: Ekonisave Shatak [The debate over the woman question: The nineteenth century]. Bombay: Popular Prakashan.Google Scholar
Ranade, Ramabai. 1910. Aamchya aayushyatil kahee aathavni [Some memories of our life together]. Repr., Mumbai: Anubhav Publications, 1993.Google Scholar
Reiner, I. M., and Goldberg., N. M 1966. Tilak and the Struggle for Indian Freedom. New Delhi: People's Publishing House.Google Scholar
Sangari, Kumkum. 1999. Politics of the Possible: Essays on Gender, History, Narrative, Colonial English. New Delhi: Tulika.Google Scholar
Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. 2003. Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Seth, Sanjay. 2007. Subject Lessons: The Western Education of Colonial India. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Spivak, Gayatri. 1993. “The Burden of English.” In Orientalism and the Postcolonial Predicament, ed. Breckenridge, Carol and van der Veer, Peter, 135–57. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Sunder Rajan, Rajeswari. 1992. “Fixing English: Nation, Language, Subject.” In Lie of the Land: English Literary Studies in India, ed. Rajan, Rajeswari Sunder, 7–28. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Trivedi, Harish. 1995. Colonial Transactions: English Literature and India. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Tucker, Richard P. 1972. Ranade and the Roots of Indian Nationalism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Vanita, Ruth. 2002. Queering India: Same Sex Love and Eroticism in Indian Society and Culture. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Viswanathan, Gauri. 1989. Masks of Conquest: Literary Study and British Rule in India. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar