Published Online:March 2026
Product Name:The IUP Journal of English Studies
Product Type:Article
Product Code:IJES010326
DOI:10.71329/IUPJES/2026.21.1.5-17
Author Name:Katikela Sreeharsha Kishore and Venkanna Ithagani
Availability:YES
Subject/Domain:Arts and Humanities
Download Format:PDF
Pages:5-17
This paper critically examines the enduring and inescapable sociolinguistic legacy of British colonial language policies in contemporary India through what scholars call the societal washback effect, past decisions now lock in present inequalities. In 1835, Lord Macaulay pushed English education to build a loyal ruling class, one detached from local ways of speaking. English remains in India as a powerful, impenetrable structural gatekeeper that governs the relations of modern Indian power. Today, English does not just circulate, it dominates. It controls access to influence, visibility, and institutional trust. The paper examines five key facets of this hegemony: the stratification of class, in which command of English language serves to reinforce lines of socioeconomic privilege; the architecture of reputation, in which high register English is equated reflexively with high intellectual capacity; the imposition of authority, revealing the permanent estrangement of citizens from state and judicial bodies; the linguistic class system, articulating how English serves as an invisible delimiter across traditional social divides and the gatekeeping of global and corporate prestige, exposing the ways in which technical authority and global brand value are closely held among the English speaking elite.
The linguistic landscape of contemporary India reflects complex layers built slowly: centuries shaped by local traditions, outside influences, and then later, colonial control (Pandit, 1972).