Pandemic, Pedagogy and the Question of English in Indian Higher Education

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic led to a rapid shift to online teaching in Indian higher education which framed primarily as a challenge of continuity. While institutional responses focused on technology, platforms and access, the role of language remained largely unexamined. This paper explores how English shaped pandemic pedagogy and structured participation, visibility and evaluation during emergency teaching. It argues that the pandemic did not create new linguistic inequalities but intensified existing ones by embedding English more firmly within institutional communication, online classroom interaction and assessment practices. Drawing on studies of emergency remote teaching, student experiences of online learning in India and research on the digital divide, the paper examines how students working through English as a foreign language encountered increased linguistic pressure. This pressure often manifested as hesitation and silence rather than overt disengagement. By foregrounding language, the paper moves beyond technological explanations and suggests that English functioned as an invisible infrastructure during the pandemic, shaping academic participation in ways that remain relevant beyond the immediate crisis.