India Goes to School (PDF)

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 shift s 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.

India's frail and fragmented education system has failed the country's children, especially those from underprivileged classes and castes. The confusion of education policies, from the colonial period onward, has played no small role in this state of affairs. India Goes to School sheds valuable light on the social and cultural roots of these policies
Jean Dreze
Honorary Professor, Delhi School of Economics

Written with great clarity and authority, in this book, Shivali Tukdeo examines the complexities of national interests and global compulsions. The analysis she presents is likely to interest not only to Indian readership but also those interested in Indian education around the world.
Fazal Rizvi
The University of Melbourne Australia

This book is a must read for anyone interested in the education system of India. It describes analytically and eloquently the internal contradictions of mass education and caste, democracy and right wing government, national policies and international influences. Shivali Tukdeo has put together a book that is outstanding on how to connect education, politics, economy and culture.
Maria Nikolakaki
Associate Professor, University of Peloponnese, Greece.