Decolonizing Higher Education in India: An Analysis of the National Education Policy 2020
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.55544/ijrah.6.4.45Keywords:
Colonial education, Decolonization, Higher education, Indian Knowledge System, National Education Policy 2020Abstract
Education is considered to be a key topic in the field of anticolonialism and postcolonialism. Colonial education was a weapon to produce a colonized population which embraced European knowledge and internalized particular norms of knowledge production which were essentially Eurocentric. The Indian Knowledge System (IKS) includes the Vedas, Upanishads, Upvedas, Buddhism, Jainism and indigenous knowledge. National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 acknowledges rich knowledge repository of India as a guiding principle. Historically, it is evident that the countries which have reclaimed their cultural heritage after their independence have developed stronger identities and this has been possible only through decolonization. This paper analyses recommendations for higher education in NEP 2020 from the decolonial perspective. Using qualitative document analysis, the paper examines NEP 2020 from the dimensions of epistemology, inclusivity and axiology. This research puts light on the growing scholarship on decolonization of education in India and critically assesses the NEP 2020 in reshaping the landscape of higher education in postcolonial India. The key findings of this research suggests that despite efforts of re-establishment of IKS, subaltern voices have been given less importance. Without indigenous, subaltern voices, complete decolonization of the education system is not possible.
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