26 SOCIAL SCIENTIST i this in turn stems from changes in the economic, social and nationality patterns within the country. English as a linguistic medium in education was instrumental in the creation of the new Indian middle classes and the intelligentsia. Colonialism through English, created a supply of clerks and persons for intellectual functions. But English as a colonial language was mainly confined to administration and an educational set-up suitable for providing administrative personnel. It did not become the natural means of communication between the urban centres and the vast rural hinterland. English was, therefore, confined mostly to urban groups who were trained to undertake subordinate administration and allied tasks. This, in fact, contributed to the tardy growth of an infrastructure for a bourgeois political movement. The middle class as a creation of new economic forms of production was slow in forming and often failed to be the dominant force in that social group. The press and political associations were stifled by the channelising of energies to the enervating babu-tsisks1 The rapid acceptance of English among the proto-middle class arose from two motive forces. There were.on the one hand, traditional upper caste groups like the Bengali Kayasthas, the Tamil Brahmins and the Marathi Chitpavans who changed their old literate occupations and began mastering English to serve their new masters. These elements outnumbered the sections of the middle class which could be classified as elements of the commercial and business groups. New forms of commerce,administration and legal institutions—all dictated the necessity of a westernised native class. This was provided for mainly by pre-existing social groups who made the necessary adjustments in their scholarly pursuits. Sanskrit and Persian, themselves languages divorced from the people, gave way easily to English. The importance of the introduction of English education and its relation to certain social groups, has been obscured by the focus on Macaulay's Minutes on Education and the debates within the East India Company on the utility of English education in India. This focus tends to emphasise the British initiative in introducing English, without paying sufficient attention to the eagerness of upper caste Hindus to be educated in that language. As Macaulay accurately noted, "This is proved by the fact that we are forced to pay our Arabic and Sanskrit students while those who learn English are willing to pay us."2 Those 'willing to pay' naturally came from upper caste middle-income groups aspiring for better economic status. This flow of students for English has gone on increasing up to the present day, as the twentieth century witnessed heightened caste competition among petty-bourgeois groups, education being the key to the loaves and fishes of office. The nature of the social groups which acquired English education also explains much about the initial outlook of the nationalist movement and the legacies it has bequeathed for independent India. The political associations formed by the English-educated, like the Indian National Congress, manifested common features in their demands to the British,