Miseducation in India: Historiographical Reflections

Abstract

India, a country with more than 1.3 billion people living in an area of 1,269,219 square miles has only three teaching positions dedicated to the history of education. This denotes little importance given to the discipline. India produced no historian of education during the first twenty-six years after attaining independence. Bhagaban Prasad Majumdar, the first historian of education in independent India, published his First Fruit of English Education in 1973, through a local publisher that no longer exists. The book analyzed the answers written in annual examinations during the first half of the nineteenth century to evaluate the growth of modern education in India. It is indispensable for anyone seeking to understand curriculum history in India, particularly a teacher education student. However, the book is seldom quoted and difficult to find. In all of Delhi, only one library holds a single copy. This is representative of the fate that has befallen even scholars who have worked in the field at the international level and published books and papers in recognized journals. This year, India is celebrating seventy-five years of independence, and so far, it has produced six sets of major historical works and five micro studies that are limited in scope, again, are seldom quoted and recognized in the public debates on education in India.