Education in contemporary India is encumbered by the convergence between forces of economic globalisation and conservative ideology. Capitalising on the post-enlightenment social-subjective split, the moral ideals of cultural nationalism, aligned with a neo-liberal thrust on learning outcomes and teacher performance threaten to marginalise knowledge and learning, mirroring the colonial experience. Cultural revivalism has also led to the intensification of patriarchy and glossing over persistent social differences based on caste, community and religion. Plural identities of the Indian people are being homogenised every day, challenging the very ‘idea of India’. This is despite a national curricular discourse that has over a decade, created space for meaningful integration and interrogation of local narratives, stressing the role of the teacher in contextualising knowledge.
If education is to be seen as a project of ‘deliberative democracy’ and curriculum an act of ‘social dialogue’ then we need to give expression to processes of engagement that promise to be emancipatory and transformative. This calls for the need to rethink about cultures of learning and teaching; and challenging what is learnt and taught by dominant cultural practice. This keynote examines some of the more vexing issues that face the practice of education in contemporary India – the wedge between policy and curricular discourse; redefinition of ‘quality’ and its collusion with how the marginal is redefined; and the deliberate undermining of the right to education. Substantive arguments are built around the need to reclaim the space for teachers in shaping the contours of transformative education; and developing capabilities as the central thrust of a socially just education.