Debarati Bagchi (#3: Democratic Institutions)

(Max Weber Foundation Delhi)

Since I am from India, I will speak from my context, and since today’s topic is not just on democracy but democratic institutions as well, I will talk about education today from the perspective of democratisation and institutionalization. If we talk about the introduction of schools and universities, discourses around the questions of mass access to education and rights to free and compulsory education have gone through various shifts since the early colonial period. Right from the early twentieth century, there was a certain push towards free and compulsory education rights in India. But it was introduced only in a scattered way in various regions. In fact, it was not until 2009 that the right of children to get free and compulsory elementary education, i.e. until the age of 14, was institutionalised. For public universities, the history unfolded very differently. There were very few universities that started being established from 1857. In 1904 the colonial government concentrated a little more resources and attention on the system of universities. After independence in 1947, many public universities and colleges were established. Public universities in India have functioned as a major space for encouraging democratic and inclusive thoughts, which is also probably why today there is a huge attack on public universities as well, particularly over the last decade.

I want to go back to the first point in terms of access through institutionalization. The attempt has been to give greater access to people and include the masses in the institutions of education. But historians and sociologists of education have shown that access did not always ensure that the inherent inequalities, the structural problems, in terms of class, caste, gender, region and language, went away. They persisted in newer forms. These institutions often sustained and even reproduced social injustices. There has been a deepening of inequality of access since the liberalization of the economy in 1991 and the increasing privatization of higher education. Right now, we are seeing a rampant privatization of universities in India on the one hand, and a systematic attack on public universities by the ruling government on the other.

The present right-wing majoritarian regime is trying to destroy certain institutions and the very social cultural fabric of diversity, that is a precondition of the formation and sustenance of democratic ideals in India. It is also to be kept in mind that their agenda is to manufacture and celebrate a homogeneous, singular idea of an Indian past, which is essentially a Hindu past. This is why the discipline of history has become such a target of attack and historians are living under extreme concern, and anxiety in India. The discipline comes under different forms of violence every day. There is an alarming increase in the circulation of distorted versions of history on social media. There is an attempt to transform school textbook history curriculum into right-wing narratives. Historical knowledge at large has become a political battleground. So, history of education takes us beyond the question of institutionalization and access. “What should be taught,” as Michael Apple has said, has always been not only an educational issue but also an inherently ideological and political issue. “What should be taught” – is at the centre of the fight between the ruling regime on one side and all others who are trying to uphold secular democratic ideals through education.

Since this panel from its very first day has also been discussing ways to engage in today’s world, I would end by saying that we, as historians based in India, have been thinking of ways to deal with the situation. Many professional historians are now trying to understand whether we have been living in our respective bubbles. Have we really lost touch with the so-called public? This question has now reenergised the debate between the public and the professional. It has brought that debate to the foreground in the question of institutionalization and democratization of education.

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