School of Social and Political Science

Description

In central India, some people regard school education as intrinsically beneficial, while many others consider it to be an expensive and risky means to an end that is not attainable by people like themselves: marginalized adivasis who lack the requisite forms of capital to translate their educational investment into a viable economic return. What gives rise to these contrasting perspectives? And what does this tell us about the powerful discourse surrounding the transformative potential of education, and the processes of ‘modernity’ and ‘development’ that correspond with it? This paper addresses these issues by focusing on the differentiated educational experiences of marginalised adivasi youth in Chhattisgarh, central India.