What is a summary of the book Masks of Conquest?

English literature was not studied in British universities until comparatively recently
and, even when it was introduced into the curriculum in the early twentieth century, had a low
status compared with traditional disciplines such as classics or history. In Masks of
Conquest, Gauri Viswanathan argues that the origins of the English literature
curriculum actually lie in Britain's imperial colonies, where the subject was used as a tool of
colonial management.

Almost a hundred years before English people were
studying English literature as an academic discipline, the English Education Act of 1835 made
English the medium of instruction in India and prescribed the study of an English literature
curriculum for Indians. The aim of this was at least partly to expose the colonial student to an
idealized literary version of an Englishman, which would serve as propaganda for colonial rule.
The curriculum also aimed to inculcate British social and political philosophies and Christian
religious...