ABSTRACT
The debate on the need for and the merits of English education in fact starts with the first novel in Tamil. Perhaps the greatest gift of English education to Indian literary history and culture was the novel form itself. That the emergence and increasing use of prose were a prerequisite to the birth of the novel is demonstrated in the fact that it was the Augustan Age in English literature that also saw the birth and early growth of the novel. A similar pattern is observed with regard to English in India as well as the regional languages, which witnessed an increasing use of prose in the nineteenth century as a ready form of communication, discourse and debate on all matters of social, cultural or political importance. Krupabai Satthianadhan (1862 - 1894) who had received English education from her own family as well as European missionaries in Maharashtra, wrote several articles in English on contemporary events and issues.
