In Delhi in the Sixties, the unspoken compact between middle class parents and the schools that raised their children was that we would be socialised into English. This had something to do with the school’s library, which was overwhelmingly stocked with books in English but this was backed up by coercion. This is still true of the schools that the pan-Indian middle class sends its children to today, but it was peculiarly true of Delhi in the Sixties. This wasn’t true of my cohort in Delhi; in North India, for the most part, becoming fluent in English meant leaving Hindi behind for everything but transactions. Contemporary elite schools are concierges for my cohort’s richer children who can afford to buy their children places in a luxe and increasingly privatised world.

Source: The Telegraph February 08, 2026 04:47 UTC