THE ENGLISHING OF INDIA 37 imperative for vast numbers of people to be educated in English (or at least to be conversant in it), to engage in radically different occupations from their traditional class/caste ones, and to migrate to cities in the hope of English education and employment. English studies in India (as distinct from English literary studies) follows the uneven trajectory of the formation of an urban middle-class and the reconstitution and rise of an indigenous elite, the comprador-landlord element which surfaced prominently in the socio-economic scene during the post-Palashi (Plassey) years. As Asok Sen's comment indicates, the introduction of English was primarily for the benefit and consolidation of British power but it also afforded distinct opportunities for certain sections of the Indian population. The history of English studies, therefore, needs to be situated within the interlocking histories of England and India. This history is inflected and informed by the social and economic aspirations of the emerging middle class and the urban elites as well as the contingencies of a rapidly expanding empire. The institution of English as the official language of British India was the product of a complex history that cannot be reduced to the currently fashionable story that sees the imposition of English simply as a British strategy for counteracting the rebellious actions of Indians. Gauri Viswanathan, for example, in her much cited book Masks of Conquest charts this history on the grid of domination and consent. In her introduction Viswanathan makes it clear that her analysis 'draws upon the illuminating insight of Antonio Gramsci, . . . that cultural domination works by consent and can (and often does) precede conquest by force.'3 Turning to the specific case of India, Viswanathan suggests that 'consent' was created before political conquest, and that the British preferred 'voluntary cultural assimilation as the most effective form of political control.' English literary studies, according to Viswanathan was 'an instrument of discipline and management,' to counteract the possibility of 'imminent rebellion and resistance.' It is her contention that 'the introduction of English represented an embattled response to historical and political pressures'; that the curriculum may be viewed as a 'defensive mechanism of control' against indigenous rebellion on the one hand, and as a way to ease the tensions among the various internecine rivalries of interests: between the East India Company, the English Parliament, the free-traders and the Indian elite.4 This view, which has gained wide currency, ignores several important facts.5 Firstly, English as the official language of British India was introduced after much of the territory that came under British suzerainty had already been consolidated via military conquest, and by a network of treaties and alliances between the East India Company and various ruling regimes (including the caste zamindari element). Secondly, the importance of English (and not an English literary syllabus) among certain sections of the Indian