For India’s Independence Day in 2025, some of our colleagues at Azim Premji University shared their thoughts on the theme, ​“Role of education in the postcolonial context”. Here are their diverse voices!

Our educational system has long been dominated by eurocentric epistemologies, deeply rooted in colonial legacies. Policies and curricula that evolved from this thinking have marginalised local knowledge, histories, languages, and identities. Even in postcolonial times, unequal societal structures remain due to the interplay between tradition and modernity along with political and economic factors. We continue to struggle with unequal access to quality education, inability to bridge urban-rural gaps, and reduce barriers faced by marginalised groups such as those with disabilities (UNESCO, 2019). Reimagining the curricula and adopting a culturally responsive pedagogy, which uses children’s customs, language, experiences and perspectives for better classroom instruction, has the potential to  decolonise our education system and respond to such inequalities. By understanding how colonialism has shaped our policies and curricula, learners and educators can understand why some groups are still marginalised. This awareness can help them reflect on the societal biases towards these marginalised groups (those who are unable to access education due to disabilities or poverty or belonging to a certain community) and collectively advocate for social and epistemic justice to promote inclusive societies. When individuals are fairly treated in their capacity as knowers, ensuring that everyone has equal access to knowledge and the opportunity to contribute to knowledge production, our educational system will go beyond conceptualising inclusion as a mere presence to fostering equitable participation, by honouring cultural and historical contexts.

- Bhuvaneswari B.

As an ecologist, my idea of sustainability and equity transcends taxonomic boundaries and goes beyond humans, acknowledging nature’s contribution to supporting life on Earth. Nature’s contribution to people occurs in three ways:

• first, by impacting ecosystem functions and processes experienced by people (for example, tree-felling and road construction in eco-sensitive zones leading to floods and landslides in ecologically sensitive regions and states like Western Ghats and Kerala, or the Himalayas and Uttarakhand),
• second, by affecting material contributions from nature (for example, a decline in nature-based livelihoods, such as timber and non-timber forest produce in the form of wood, fruits and flowers, oil seeds, medicines, fodder, natural dyes, among many other material gains),
• and finally, by impacting non-material contributions of nature (for example, as the Mahseer fish in water bodies is getting replaced with exotic and commercially cultivated fish species, it impacts cultural, religious, linguistic and cuisine-associated practices around the fish).

While the Indian research and educational system has increasingly highlighted many of these connections, we are still grappling with a mature socioecological synthesis where the utilitarian lens towards nature is replaced with a discourse of nature-with-people, of coexistence and conservation. As a young professional in India, I appreciate a liberal arts educational programme, which looks to be a constructive trajectory where the issues around conservation of nature with people could be interpreted organically from multiple lenses, of biology, social science, economics, policymaking, among others. A more collaborative and decentralised knowledge production system, contributing to the formulation of an interdisciplinary educational approach and popularising the nature-people interlinkages among the masses will give rise to a more cognizant and involved society for nature conservation.
 

- Alok Bang

 

In postcolonial societies, education plays a transformative role in addressing historical injustices and fostering sustainable futures. Colonial regimes imposed extractive models of development and actively erased indigenous ecological knowledge and practices. For instance, colonial forest policies in India criminalized traditional practices like shifting cultivation and communal forest use, replacing them with state-controlled forestry systems that prioritized timber extraction. Today, education must confront these legacies and become a tool for decolonization. By reclaiming local environmental histories, amplifying community voices, and embedding environmental justice into curricula, it can empower those long excluded from shaping their futures. 

Education holds the potential not only to understand the past but to nurture the imagination needed to build just, democratic, and inclusive futures. It should inspire learners to question dominant narratives — such as colonial ideas of progress or development and engage deeply with ecological realities shaped by histories of extraction and resistance. For instance, teaching about indigenous forest management practices that were criminalized under colonial rule can help students reimagine conservation beyond state-led models. Education can also draw on creative methods — such as community mapping, and participatory design — to help learners envision alternative futures rooted in care, equity, and sustainability. In doing so, education becomes a bridge between memory and possibility, helping shape a world where environmental justice is not merely an aspiration but a lived reality.

- Ayushi Dhawan

The term postcolonial in its pejorative sense, indicates the need for a society to return to its precolonial state. The makers of the Indian constitution chose the alternative of creating a continuity with the nation’s past and discontinuity from its colonised state. As Upendra Baxi says, constitutions are ​“moral autobiographies of new nations … vigorously disinvesting the colonial past”.

We constituted ourselves into a unique form of democracy and significantly customized Western notions of liberal democracy and created the path for decolonization. For instance, federalism during British times was used as a means of delegation, whereas in our constitution federalism is coded as devolution of power to the states. The constitution commands duties from individual citizens while providing us with rights.

School curriculum ought to help learners understand the constitution in this manner. Political education should be shaped around constitutional values and use them as a lens to view the current state of India. The starting point would be a significant revamp of teacher education curriculum, thus enabling them to teach children the spirit of the constitution rather than to reduce it to fundamental rights and duties. 
 

- Prakash Iyer

 

Pedagogy in environmental education needs to go beyond the acquisition of knowledge, to building an ethics of care towards the environment including of non-human species. Enabling this are pedagogical approaches that engender a sense of place, recognise traditional ecological knowledge systems and build stewardship of environmental resources. The annual Climate festivals organised at the University are aimed at encouraging this stewardship among children and youth, with the messaging of hope about what is otherwise a dismal scenario. It is imperative that research is disseminated beyond peer-reviewed journals and books in an alternative medium which is accessible to all. This includes illustrated stories, activity-based learning resources, booklets and user-friendly guides. 

Higher education programmes in environmental science and sustainability can offer spaces for students to explore the intricate connections between social and environmental systems across scales, while building the skills needed for meaningful action. An interdisciplinary approach — one that blends sciences, humanities, and the arts, and is anchored in the principles of justice — holds the potential to guide us toward a more sustainable and equitable future.

- Arvind Lakshmisha and Seema Mundoli

One important thing which education does is to help move people into new social roles. History has given us a society where, to a large extent, social roles are decided by one’s birth into a class, caste, region and gender. Education is helping us to slowly dissolve that cement of birth and cultural norms. It can do this much better when everyone gets access to good quality education. A second important thing which education does is to help change cultures and their belief systems. In a fast-moving world our cultures cannot afford to be insular and we cannot unquestioningly think that whatever we are doing is right. Education can promote cultures of reason, justice and dialogue. This would help us to empathize with other groups and get an awareness of the consequences of our actions on them and on our environment. These are two reasons why education is one of our great hopes for a better India and world.

- Amman Madan

 

Suppose X and Y are of the same age, gender and with similar fitness levels. Both participate in a 400-metre race. In such a scenario, it’s difficult to predict who will win the race. There is one catch though. If X has to run 400 metres uphill and Y has to run 400 metres downhill then things change. Now, Y’s likelihood of winning the race is higher. The simulated race scenario is an analogy of the disparities in ensuring that one leads the life one values. An accident of birth creates divergent pathways for people; aiding some while disabling many. And asymmetric access to schools and academic institutions propels some while paralysing others. Quality education is a public good and must be free. After all, a common and free space for quality education is the gym to nurture fraternity, dignity, equality and liberty. Only then will everyone be able to lead a life they have reason to value and cherish. 

- Rajendran Narayanan

As a faculty in the BA English (Hons.) programme, I encounter the postcolonial question everyday: how can I merge decolonial praxis with reading the masters of the colonial language? Embedded in this is the status of English as a language of privilege once available only to the most elite of Indians, a category many of the students in present-day Indian classrooms do not belong to. Such questions of power are unignorable in my literature classes with many first- generation learners of English. I find that the only way to tackle this contentious situation is head-on: to acknowledge the simultaneously divisive and unifying history of this medium.

Students learn to appreciate literature as an art form by reading the translated poetry of Siddalingaiah, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Rabindranath Tagore and Lakkur Ananda, weighing the different approaches each of these authors employ to understand the complex structures — which students are at times intimately familiar with — in play in India. I have found that this opens up a conversation on inclusiveness and coming to terms with our past that serves as the best ​“ice-breaker” to all concerned.

- Rukma Prince

 

Today, it is deeply unfortunate that children are growing up in a socially fragmented world where hate and prejudices are normalised in everyday life. It is heart-wrenching to witness even very young children – who have not yet fully developed the concepts of caste, class, gender, religion or language – engaging in passing slurs, name-calling, and discriminatory behaviours. These behaviours are not innate, but rather learned from their surroundings: from family conversations, biased attitudes from teachers, peer-group dynamics, media portrayals, popular culture, and the language used around them. In a world where adults fail to model acceptance of differences and valuing diversity, children continue to internalise ideas about their own identity and that of others through a lens of bias. These biases manifest in harmful behaviours towards other children – whether it is towards a child observing Ramadan, coming from a Northeast state, a particular community or region, someone living in economic hardship, a child with Down syndrome, or simply for being a girl. This early internalization of bias poses a serious threat to the vision of an equitable society. Such unconscious poisoning of young minds cannot be ignored or trivialised. 

To bring about a transformative change, anti-bias learning must become a conscious and embodied part of education – starting with early childhood. Early childhood education holds immense potential to equip children with the ability to challenge stereotypes, resist prejudice and build a foundation for a democratic, pluralistic society. However, in India, anti-bias learning is largely absent from current early education practices.

There is an urgent need to integrate anti-bias principles into the daily routines, materials, pedagogical approaches, and relationships within early childhood classrooms. Although the National Education Policy 2020 emphasizes inclusion, it falls short of providing educators with a clear roadmap for putting anti-bias principles into practice. To bridge this gap, anti-bias practices must be embedded in Anganwadi and teacher training programs. Teachers need space and support to reflect on their own (often unconscious) biases and be equipped with tools to help children develop positive identities, appreciate diversity, recognize unfairness, and act against discrimination. If we are truly committed to building an equitable and socially sustainable future, we must begin with our youngest citizens.

- Deepshikha Singh