ABSTRACT
The topic of early English textbooks and language policies in India is a rich and complex one. However, English education, that is to say, teaching and learning of English and through English about subjects, ideas, manners, morals, practices and so on that were associated with the English, began to make its appearance in India in the eighteenth century. The Pious Clause laid the groundwork for the introduction of state-funded English education in India. The British combatants were joined by Indians who, too, were divided between those who wanted the public funds to be spent on supporting traditional education in Sanskrit and Arabic and those who argued for the funds to be expended on an English education, known as Orientalists and Anglicists, respectively. A major intervenor on the Indian side in support of English education was Raja Rammohun Roy. Attention shifted to the company's headquarters in London, and implementation of any scheme of mass English education was delayed by several years.
