In this paper I will be focussing on three main themes with respect to the education of the working class in colonial India from the late 19th century to the early decades of the 20th century. First, I briefly emphasize the similarities of this policy in the metropolis while pointing to the significance of the specificities of the colonial context. Second, the colonial policy on education of the working class was neither coherently chalked out nor consistent. Third, I argue that the notion of education for the working class was geared towards the need to produce industrial workers. In other words, instead of a means of social change such education was directed towards reproducing working class identity, albeit in newer ways.