India became independent on 15 August 1947 and nearly two centuries of British colonial rule ended. However, the epistemic and linguistic structures established during colonial rule did not disappear completely and their continued influence created an urgent need to decolonise the intellectual processes.
Colonialism was more than military occupation. It operated through layered systems. The colonial state did not simply rule territory but also governed the minds of the colonised. Thomas Babington Macaulay’s famous “Minute on Indian Education”, written in 1835, explicitly advocated the replacement of traditional Sanskrit and Persian languages of learning with English-medium Western education. His objective, as he mentions, was to create “a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect.”
British education functioned not merely as a project of ‘educational reform’ but also as an important instrument of governance which privileged the English language over vernacular ones. This institutional preference, while contributing to linguistic and epistemic hierarchies, also strengthened the existing structures of colonial power.
English was not merely a native language of colonial administration but also a symbol of institutional authority and social power. Colonial authorities regulated power and authority through the instrument of language rather than used it merely as a means of communication. Indian universities, even after political independence in 1947, continue to rely significantly on English language, while indigenous linguistic systems of knowledge often received comparatively limited attention.
Postcolonial scholars such as Edward Said, Frantz Fanon, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o, and Chinua Achebe have demonstrated how imperial power operated not only through politico-economic control but also through language. This mechanism of domination influenced how colonised people understood themselves, their histories and their cultures.
In his seminal work “Decolonising the Mind”, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o argues that “language, any language, has a dual character: it is both a means of communication and a carrier of culture.” Therefore, it carries not only information but also memory, cultural experience and identity.
Edward Said’s concept of “Orientalism” is equally important as it encourages readers to ask not only what colonial education presents but also how it represents. European literary and intellectual traditions frequently constructed the East as an “Other,” portraying it as irrational, mystical or fundamentally different from the West. Examining these representations critically enables students to recognise how knowledge itself can be shaped by relations of power.
A decolonised curriculum should, therefore, be required, which encourages comparative rather than hierarchical study. E. M. Forster, for example, can be read alongside Indian literary responses to the British Empire. Joseph Conrad can be studied alongside Chinua Achebe, allowing students to examine both colonial representation and its critique. William Shakespeare can coexist with Indian classical languages and literature.
Post-independence study requires intellectual confidence and the equal recognition of different languages without accepting English as inherently superior. Independence, in this broader sense, means possessing the intellectual freedom to interpret history through one’s own perspectives rather than relying exclusively on inherited colonial frameworks. Universities should therefore encourage students to question canonical assumptions, recover neglected regional literatures and cultivate multilingual scholarship. Only through such an approach can education become genuinely emancipatory.
Multilingualism, NEP 2020 and the Continuing Project of Independence
India’s National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 is a foundation step to promote multilingualism and empower the Indian linguistic system. It presents a three-language system for the students to study three languages, with at least two being native Indian languages (Bhartiya Bhashas). “The three languages learned by children will be the choices of States, regions, and of course the students themselves, so long as at least two of the three languages are native to India. In particular, students who wish to change one or more of the three languages they are studying may do so in Grade 6 or 7, as long as they are able to demonstrate basic proficiency in three languages (including one language of India at the literature level) by the end of secondary school.”
“CBSE is reportedly preparing learning materials for nine Indian languages for the 2026-27 session, including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Gujrati, and Bangla”, as many consider, it is a part of the visible project of decolonisation.
The NEP 2020’s multilingualism with greater emphasis on regional languages as media of instruction in school, is a seminal step towards recognition of Indian languages and decolonisation.
However, NEP 2020 should not be considered as opposition to English as it continues to provide access to global academic networks: research, scholarship and professional opportunities. The objective of the NEP is to promote multilingualism rather than linguistic replacement or linguistic hierarchy.
As postcolonial Indian student, we should appreciate both Shakespeare in English and Indian writers: Rabindranath Tagore in Bengali, Premchand in Hindi, Ghalib in Urdu, Subramania Bharati in Tamil, Fakir Mohan Senapati in Odia, Vaikom Muhammad Basheer in Malayalam etc, without assigning greater intellectual value to one literary work solely because of the language in which it is written.
Today, redefining independence requires questioning the inherited colonial curricula and linguistic hierarchies. A genuinely decolonised education should create an intellectual space of multiple languages with equal standards. In this sense, the unfinished project of independence is not the rejection of the English language but the development of the intellectual sovereignty to examine, question and reinterpret it from diverse Indian perspectives.
