In retracting from the popular view that India’s modern educational policy was shaped almost entirely by Macaulay, this incisive work reveals the complex ideological and institutional rubric of the colonial educational system. It examines its wide-ranging and lasting impact on curriculum, pedagogy, textbooks, teachers’ role and status, and indigenous forms of knowledge. Recounting the nationalist response to educational reforms, the book reinforces three major quests: justice as expressed in the demand for equal educational opportunities for the lower castes; self-identity as manifest in the urge to define India’s educational needs from within its own cultural repertoire; and the idea of progress based on industrialization. An exceptional contribution to educational theory, including a nuanced discussion of caste, gender and girls’ education, this book will be invaluable to teachers, scholars and students of education, modern Indian history and sociology of education, and policy makers.

This book pays attention to education in India as part of several overlapping stories developed along different axes: stories of dissent, contestations, appropriation and social action. It historicises the enterprise of formal education by paying attention to the numerous policy shifts. Further, it theorises the education policy discourse by analysing the ways in which education is increasingly being shaped by international/transnational knowledge production, actors and norms. Focusing on the cultural politics of education policy production, circulation and translation across different contexts, the book revisits some of the long-standing and unresolved debates on social reforms, justice, nationalism and mobility. Evolution of ideas such as mass education, national education, adult literacy and education through public-private-partnerships showcase the momentous shifts in education policy over the course of last century. Ideas, institutional and economic arrangements, administrative formulations and frameworks for implementation make frequent appearances in the cultural as well as political reading of education policy. In a departure from the traditional policy research, this work sees policy as socially and culturally constructed; connected to questions of power, context and struggle; and part of a number of processes at large.

This book provides new evidence on teachers unions and their political activities across nations, and offers a foundation for a comparative politics of education.

This book studies the state of tribal education in India. India has the single largest tribal population in the world, yet the tribal community remains one of the most economically impoverished and marginalized groups in the country. The volume: Examines the educational status of the tribal population and studies developmental issues such as unemployment, illiteracy, caste discrimination, and inequality faced by the community Studies the implementation and execution of welfare schemes, initiatives, and reforms in place to tackle issues faced by tribal students and identifies loopholes in the various centrally sponsored schemes Emphasizes the importance of the Right to Education Act and presents policy implications for the educational uplift of India’s very many millions of tribal people A critical study of the Indian education system, this book will be indispensable to students and researchers of education, education policy, minority studies, indigenous studies, sociology of education, and South Asian studies.

This book comprehensively chronicles the history of the education policymaking in India from 1947 to 2016 with a focus on the developments after 1964 when the Kothari Commission was constituted. The book is informed by the rare insights acquired by the author while making policy at the state, national, and international levels of governance. Another distinguishing feature of this book lies in the attention it pays to the process and politics of policymaking and the larger setting—or, to use jargon, the political and policy environment— in which policies were made at different points of time. The author brings out a crucial analysis of the Indian educational system against the backdrop of national and global political, economic, and educational developments. Two other distinguishing features of the book are the systematic treatment of the regulation of education and the role of judiciary in the making and implementation of education policies.

In retracting from the popular view that India’s modern educational policy was shaped almost entirely by Macaulay, this incisive work reveals the complex ideological and institutional rubric of the colonial educational system. It examines its wide-ranging and lasting impact on curriculum, pedagogy, textbooks, teachers’ role and status, and indigenous forms of knowledge. Recounting the nationalist response to educational reforms, the book reinforces three major quests: justice as expressed in the demand for equal educational opportunities for the lower castes; self-identity as manifest in the urge to define India’s educational needs from within its own cultural repertoire; and the idea of progress based on industrialization. An exceptional contribution to educational theory, including a nuanced discussion of caste, gender and girls’ education, this book will be invaluable to teachers, scholars and students of education, modern Indian history and sociology of education, and policy makers.