A key question facing policymakers in many emerging economies is whether to promote the local language, as opposed to English, in elementary schools. In this paper, we estimate the English premium in a globalizing economy, by exploiting an exogenous language policy intervention in India. Our results indicate that a 10% increase in the probability of learning English in primary school raises weekly wages by 9%. On the average, this implies 29% higher wages for cohorts not exposed to the English abolition policy. We provide further evidence that occupational choice played a decisive role in determining the wage gap.