Endless Siege

Description

This is an ethnographic study of the Vidya Bharati chain of schools in India which are run by a Hindu nationalist organization called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). The first study of its kind, this volume is an important narrative on the role and impact of textbooks in modern India. Despite having limited resources (they are run on a tight budget) and being based on a radical ideology that derives from a 'Hindu' nationalist agenda, the Vidya Bharati schools have achieved considerable success in the free market of private education and have grown to over 12,000 schools within 40 years. They are an important example of the interlinkage between ideology and nationalism in contemporary India. The author analyses school structure, curriculum, teaching quality, institutional goals, and ideology in an effort to identify reasons behind Vidya Bharati's success and to show through his field research that a combined strategy of pragmatism blended with ideology has allowed the schools to become highly sought-after. This analysis then asks broader questions about the failures of the public education system in India.

About the author:

Krzysztof Iwanek obtained two M A degrees, one in Indology and the other in History, followed by a PhD in Cultural Studies, all three from Warsaw University. He also completed an advanced Hindi course at Kendriya Hindi Sansthan, Delhi, India. He taught Hindi, Indian history, and Indian politics at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, Republic of Korea; Collegium Civitas, Poland, and Warsaw University, Poland. Iwanek's main field of interest is contemporary Indian history and politics, especially Hindu nationalism and Hindu conservatism. He is currently the head of the Asia Research Centre (at Centre for Security Studies, War Studies University, Poland) and a contributor to The Diplomat.

Table of contents

Chapter 1   Twins: Hindu Nationalism and Education

Chapter 2   Strong Roots, Myriad Branches. Structure and Spread of Vidya Bharati

Chapter 3   Life of Schools

Chapter 4   From Sages to Sieges. Textbooks in Vidya Bharati Schools

Chapter 5   Many Pasts. Comparing Vidya Bharati and NCERT's Narratives on History

Chapter 6   Minstrels and Kings. Connections between Vidya Bharati, RSS and BJP
Conclusion Vidya Bharati and Nationalist Sanskritisation