CRITICAL SITES OF INCLUSION IN INDIA’S HIGHER EDUCATION

Book Details:

• Author: Dr. Papia Sengupta (Editor)

• Publisher: Rawat Publications

• Language: English

• Edition: 2024

• ISBN: 9789819974917

• Pages: 214

• Cover: Hardcover

About the Book

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the often-overlooked practices and policies surrounding the rhetoric of ‘inclusion’ in higher education, offering both theoretical and empirical perspectives. It critically examines the complexities of education policies in a multicultural society, focusing on the challenges to the notion of ‘inclusion’, as revealed through judicial interventions, policy frameworks, and the lived experiences of individuals.

In a country like India, where deep social inequalities exist, higher education plays a crucial role in empowerment, particularly for marginalized communities. Access to higher education is seen as a gateway to economic opportunities and vertical mobility, making inclusion a central concern. The book also addresses the ongoing tensions in India’s higher education sector, where academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas face unprecedented challenges, putting the very idea of inclusion at risk. The contributions in this volume explore how inclusion is being negotiated within the higher education system, with a focus on issues such as language, gender, minority rights, and the experience of the LGBTQIA+ community in academic spaces.

Contents

1. Introduction – Papia Sengupta

2. Interrogating Neoliberal Market Rationality and the Exclusivity of Higher Education – V. Bijukumar

3. Negotiating Inclusion: Minority Institutions and Constitutional-Legal Dimensions in India – Malavika Menon

4. From Exclusion to Inclusion: The Case of Public Madrasah Education System in West Bengal – Abdul Matin

5. Language Conundrum: English Language and Exclusivity in India’s Higher Education – Ramanujam Meganathan

6. Inclusive Education from School to Higher Education in India: Provisions, Possibilities, and Progress – Gagandeep Bajaj

7. Institutional Norms as Hindrance to Participation of Women as Members of Academic Community – Shivani Nag

8. Higher Education and the Question of Inclusivity for LGBTQIA+ Community – Shailja Tandon

9. Assessing Inclusion in India’s Higher Education: NEP 2020 in Perspective – Papia Sengupta

About the Author / Editor

Dr. Papia Sengupta teaches at the Centre for Political Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. She received the Distinguished Teacher award in 2009 from former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam for her contribution to mentoring students. Dr. Sengupta has been a fellow at several prestigious institutions, including the Institute for Advanced Studies in Humanities at the University of Edinburgh and Brown University. Her research spans topics like language politics, diversity studies, minority rights, and the decolonization of knowledge, with a particular focus on gender and multiculturalism. She has authored a monograph titled Language as Identity in Colonial India: Policies and Politics (2018) and was honored with the Solidarity Award by the International Association for Applied Linguistics in 2020.