| Abstract | Between 1850 and 1947 British colonial power and its related institutions reshaped the indigenous childhood of English educated Indians in ways that continue to be of significance today. Despite vast regional and linguistic differences, the structures of the British Raj produced a shared childhood experience, that differed in significant ways from the experience of preceding generations as well as non-English educated groups. This essay draws primarily on biographical literature, to construct the childhood of English educated Indians in this period. It identifies the structures of the new English language education and the outlines of the Western/British modernities promulgated within it. It then focuses on the ways in which the new educational system and its ideology changed childhood structures and experience, family relations and conflicts, and the process of growing to maturity for students exposed to it. |
