In this episode, historian Dr. Divya Kannan talks to us about the evolution of education in colonial India, and how caste and gender have played a huge role in shaping access.

‘In Perspective’ is The Swaddle’s podcast series where academics reveal little-known facts about Indian history, society and culture. 

Notes: 

00:01:00:10- How do you deal with the difficulties of doing archival work on childhood, particularly with understanding what constitutes the child’s voice in the archive? 

00:03:57:20- How did India’s National Education Policy come into being in the 19th century? And in what ways has it evolved from its colonial roots?

00:08:10:19- In what ways have these early ideas around primary education and the purpose of education seeped into  the kind of mindset we have towards education today? 

00:11:57:01- How has the British empire impacted the notion of childhood and children’s identities in colonial India? Do we see similar patterns in colonized nations across the globe?

00:16:58:18- When can we trace back the beginning of girls’ education in India to? What were some of the formative factors that played a role in girls’ education in the 19th century? 

00:21:47:23- Have we moved away from this idea of gendered labor and looking at education within the larger framework of nurture and care? Or does it still persist in a lot of ways? 

00:26:36:10- What types of values about femininity were espoused in schools run by missionaries for girls in the 19th century? Why was there an emphasis on being good wives and mothers? Could you elaborate on the history of Home Sciences? 

00:33:49:15- In what ways did colonial missionaries seek to fashion the identity of poor natives that they educated? How did the gulf between primary and secondary education end up reproducing social caste and class hierarchies? 

00:39:58:11- What is the importance of archiving childhood? What is the significance of studying the history of childhoods in South Asia and beyond?