Acknowledgements;
List of abbreviations;
1. Introduction: Framing the ‘Crisis’ Debate;
2. The Humboldtian Heritage and the Idea of Education;
3. The Pedagogical Mission: The Colonial Debate on Liberal Education in India;
4. Unexpected Departures: Liberal Education ‘Distorted’;
5. The Common Pursuit: The Nationalist Search for Alternatives;
6. Limits of the Cognitive Framework: Indigenous Education through European Lenses;
Conclusion;
Glossary;
Bibliography;
Index.

What explains the peculiar trajectory of the university and liberal education in India? Can we understand the crisis in the university in terms of the idea of education underlying it?

This book explores these vital questions and traces the intellectual history of the idea of education and the cluster of concepts associated with it. It probes into the cultural roots of liberal education and seeks to understand its scope, effects and limits when transplanted into the Indian context. With an extensive analysis of the philosophical writing on the idea of university and education in the West and colonial documents on education in India, the book reconstructs the ideas of Gandhi and Tagore on education and learning as a radical alternative to the inherited, European model. The author further reflects upon how we can successfully deepen liberal education in India as well as construct alternative models that will help us diversify higher learning for future generations.

Lucid, extensive and of immediate interest, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers interested in the history and philosophy of education and culture, social epistemology, ethics, postcolonial studies, cultural studies and public policy.