This article traces the motif of English education in Justice Syed Mahmood’s intellectual history and demonstrates the dialogical nature of knowledge formation in British India. While his own educational experience at Cambridge University had a profound and lasting impact on his own conception of the nature and purpose of education, Mahmood transformed and adapted that experiential knowledge to serve his predominant public concerns. He was increasingly committed to arresting the perceived decline in social standing, political influence and above all educational competence of the Muslim community in India. Seeing government service as the birthright of the ashraf Muslim classes, he encouraged the creation of institutions that would facilitate the training of young men from fine families to become effective bureaucrats in the government machinery of British India. In all these endeavours, Mahmood considered the promotion of English education to be the key to real progress for individuals and for the Muslim community.