Education in Colonial India: Historical Insights - Hardcover

The collection of essays in this volume tries to address some of the issues and developments in the making of an inclusive knowledge society in colonial India, and the transmission of knowledge through agents and institutions of education in modern India from a historical perspective. The pace of knowledge diffusion has increased particularly over the last century, but the education system in India today is basically a legacy of the two centuries of colonial rule, with limited and uneven access to knowledge. The volume traces the growth of knowledge in India in modern times and its conflict with existing societal and religious expectations and also of the conflict between individual and institutional ideas. It also addresses the issue of social exclusion—be it sectional, regional or gender oriented—and explores the growth of a new system of education in modern India.

Joseph Bara coordinates the research program of the Educational Records Research Unit (ERRU) at Jawaharlal Nehru University. He has been a fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study in Shimla and has published a number of articles on social and educational history of modern India. Deepak Kumar teaches history of education at the Zakir Husain Center for Educational Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University. He is the author of Science and the Raj and convened and presided over the International Association of Historians of Asia Conference in 2008. Nandita Khadria is a research officer on the academic staff of the ERRU with a special interest in agrarian history and the history of technical and women's education. Ch. Radha Gayathri is a research officer on the academic staff of the ERRU and has been working in the area of history of education and medicine with a special focus on women.