Much work and debates have taken place on the nature, role, and politics and so on of English studies in India. Amidst all these issues, it is obligatory to ponder over the linguistic competence of students in English. From the perspective of linguistic proficiency, teaching English literature to Indian students is one of the most exigent and challenging tasks for primarily two reasons: culturally English language is still ‘foreign’[i] to most Indians, barring the urban elite who had/have public schooling; the education system in India provides less scope for teachers and students to go beyond the customary/conventional/traditional/conservative ways to internalize the language to the extent of mastering it to enjoy and value literature. Therefore, it becomes essential to distinguish the difference between teaching English language as a tool of communication[ii] and teaching language to appreciate literature written and translated in English language.[iii]
To understand the problem, it is valuable to comprehend the reasons of choosing English literature course in graduation or post-graduation studies. There is a general belief, and quite truly, that English as a language will not only fetch better access and prospects in the job market but also will provide cultural privileges such as social elitism and social mobility.[iv] It is with these dreams that most students join English Studies course (whether graduation or post-graduation), many (primarily the first generation learners) hoping to hone their linguistic skills. But the students who join to polish their linguistic competence find themselves in utter dismay when they are faced with classics starting from Chaucer to Joyce/Beckett, as they cannot figure out the way to deal with the classics. They do not have the time to build their linguistic capabilities as the course demands reading history of English literature, novels, plays, poems, short stories, essays etc along with critical writing and theory. As a consequence, before they can figure the way out of the problem, the examination rings its bell and the students are forced to somehow mug up the bare minimum so as to pass the examination.
Moreover, as our educational pattern is examination-oriented, therefore, most students including the brilliant ones mostly study not to gain knowledge or critical understanding, but to score good marks/grades in the examination. Therefore instead of understanding literature, what a student looks for in a literary text is answers for the probable questions that may come in the examination, which typically are limited to the plot and characterization.[v] Thus, the better students often focus on these questions and prepare the answers throughout the year; memorizes or mugs up to reproduce in the examination – the supposed better ones full of quotations from the text(s) and often quotations from critics (primarily the western ones) to score well and the lazy students try to figure easy way out and the Indian Publication houses are there to help him/her.
The publishing industry[vi] has a great role to play in Canon-formation, but what one sees in India is truly appalling. Apart from the literary texts (novels, plays, poems, collection of short stories and essays prescribed in courses of different universities) what one finds in abundance in Indian book market are ‘kunjis,’ ‘champions’, ‘guides’ which provide paraphrasing of the text (often also in Hindi or other Indian language(s)) and elaborate second grade notes on plot and characterization which are full of spurious facts, misleading ideas and erroneous quotations. Yet, often the students, instead of studying the original text(s) prefer to study from these ‘kunjis’.
The paper setters/examiners are made to set questions and give marks according to these standards and the net result is that many students who come out with highest degrees from Indian universities are good in summing up the characters and plot of a literary text and show no knowledge of the literary text(s) in terms of its context, its historicization, its significance in ordering one’s experience (Kaul, 214) and its importance in examining one’s own and text’s location in the context in which one is situated. the text and its reading(s) instead of opening the mind of the student and enhancing his/her imaginative, creative and critical potential, blocks his/her mind.
There are no easy ready-made solutions to these problems as the problems are not merely of teaching and learning, but it has deeper facets in terms of policy decisions, in terms of the reasons of choosing English courses, in terms of socio-cultural milieu in which we are living.
Before students come to take admission, what they need is proper counseling about what courses are suitable for her or him and what the course consists of. Proper counseling by experts/ subject experts would make the students and their parents understand the career goals of the students and make them excel in the course they choose to pursue.
Teachers have a great role to play in figuring out in the beginning of the academic session the students who need special attention in terms of bettering their linguistic skills in English. Remedial classes should be arranged not only for the students from the weaker sections of the society, but for all students who are weak in their linguistic competence.
The Curriculum should be designed in such a way so as to make the students understand the nature of the subject that they have chosen. For that the curriculum of English studies (both Graduation and post-graduation) should consist, at least in the first year/semester of the course – a short history of English language and a short history of English studies in India, along with literature from Indian languages.
A comparatist approach[vii] should be taken in the classroom in making the students feel at home even while dealing with the classics. It is important to make students understand that classics are not in the course because of their universal significance, but they are a part of literary canon. So the politics of canonization and the resulting impact of it in our literary studies need to be probed in the classroom. Teachers need to emphasize that literary studies do not operate in a social vacuum and neither do exist in “some pure realm of aesthetics and ideas.” (Mukherji, Provocations, 25-35), but has the role of perceiving one’s cultural identity and examine one’s location in the immediate socio-cultural context. Moreover, historisation of English literature is absolutely essential to question its essentialist and universalist discourse which has led to its assimilation and continuation even in post independence India.
The publication industry needs to have a faith in themselves that if they start producing good critical material and not merely think in terms of short term profit by publishing ‘guides’ then it is going to help them in long run. Scholars also need to have faith in Indian publishers that their writing will be valued even if published by Indian publishers.
The pattern of paper-setting and evaluation needs to be changed, where more emphasis should be given to students’ observation of the literary text from their own socio-cultural and gendered perspective, rather than the questions on plot and characterization. Students should be evaluated in terms of his or her understanding of the text from his/her ideological standpoint and not merely in terms of his/her ability to quote from the text(s) and the critics.
Thus, not merely pedagogic; many other reforms are needed in both academic and non-academic arenas to facilitate students’ competence in English language and for them to enjoy and excel in English Studies. Teachers have a significant role to play in the process as they can only make the classroom such where the students, even the linguistically weaker ones, find interest in the syllabi and beyond it and are ready to take the challenge of not only doing well in the subject but also mastering the language.
Notes
[i] Though officially English is an Indian language and constitutionally has the status of Associate National Official language.
[ii] Business English, Technical English etc are the various epithets given to the courses, which claim to make the students efficient in communicative practices.
[iii] I am not against using English literature as a tool of teaching communication or communicative practices, but what I want to focus in this paper is the linguistic skills of average Indian students (primarily from a non-metropolitan and non-elite background) and their study of English literature.
[iv] Gandhi’s comment on English medium schooling in Harijan, 1938 seems apt – “The English Medium created an impassable barrier between me and the members of my family, who had not gone through English Schools … I was fast becoming a stranger in my own home. I certainly became a superior person. Even my dress began to undergo imperceptible changes.” The same argument is also true about English Studies in India, as knowledge and fluency of English Language can work wonders in terms of not only getting jobs, but also in commanding certain respect in the society. As westernization is still viewed by many as modernization therefore Makarand Paranjape opines that TELI acts as “a broker between the West and India.” (Provocations, 54)
[v] May be in the urban educational institutions there is a bit more variety to the questions in terms of gender politics etc, but in the non-urban centres plot and characterization in case of novels and plays and critical appreciation of poems still form the major part of the question paper.
[vi] Publishing is “a social and cultural institution that plays a powerful role in shaping particular ideas, in ensuring their prevalence and acceptance at any given time and indeed, in turn being shaped by them.” (Butalia, 321).
[vii] Aijaz Ahmed – “It is only by submitting the teaching of English Literature to the more crucial and comparatist discipline of historical and cultural studies and by connecting the knowledge of that literature with literatures of our own that we can begin to break the colonial grid and to liberate the teacher of English from a colonially determined, subordinated and parasitic existence. (Rethinking English, 260)
Works Cited:
Ahmad, Aijaz. "Disciplinary English: Third-Worldism and Literature." Rethinking English: Essays in Literature, Language, History. Ed. Svati Joshi. Delhi: Trianka, 1991. 206-63
Butalia, Urvashi. “English Textbook, Indian Publisher.” Rethinking English: Essays in Literature, Language, History. Ed. Svati Joshi. Delhi: Trianka, 1991. 321 – 345.
Kaul, Suvir. “The Indian Academic and Resistance to Theory.” The Lie of the Land: English Literary Studies in India. Ed. Rajeswari Sunder Rajan. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1993. 207 – 228.
Mukherji, Meenakshi. “Certain Long-Simmering Questions.” Provocations: The Teaching of English Literature in India. Ed. Saudhakar Marathe, Mohan Ramanan and Robert Bellarmine. Hyderabad: Orient Longman, 1993. 25 – 36.
Paranjape, Makarand. “Beyond English: Teli’s larger Agenda.” Provocations: The Teaching of English Literature in India. Ed. Saudhakar Marathe, Mohan Ramanan and Robert Bellarmine. Hyderabad: Orient Longman, 1993. 49 - 58.
Sunder Rajan, Rajeswari. “Fixing English: Nation, Language, Subject.” The Lie of the Land: English Literary Studies in India. Ed. Rajeswari Sunder Rajan. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1993. 7 – 28.
Article written by Deb Dulal Halder
* Article first published in FORTELL May 2011
Original link: http://www.elthelpline.com/index.php/articles-new/94-english-studies-an…