Tagore’s perspective on decolonizing education

Mukherjee, Mousumi (2021) Tagore’s perspective on decolonizing education. In: Oxford research encyclopedia of education. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 1-17.

[thumbnail of Mukherjee2021.pdf] Text
Mukherjee2021.pdf - Published Version
Restricted to Repository staff only

Download (1MB) | Request a copy

Abstract

Decolonization is a historic process that picked up momentum in the second half of the 20th century, whereby several countries of the Global South in Asia, Africa, and Latin America successively gained independence from European colonial rule and became sovereign modern nation-states. However, territorial independence from an external ruling power alone could not bring an end to all the social, political, and economic problems ushered in by hundreds of years of imperialism. This fact was realized long before independence from colonial rule by Rabindranath Tagore within the context of British colonial India. Hence, even before territorial and political decolonization, Tagore sought to decolonize the minds of people through education reform by first setting up his own school in 1901 and then establishing Visva-Bharati University in 1921. In fact, Tagore, who is the author of the national anthems of two independent modern South Asian nation-states, never saw independent India. He died in 1941 as a British colonial subject, six years before the independence of India from colonial rule in 1947. While many indigenous intellectuals of his era adopted violent and nonviolent methods to fight against British imperialism, Tagore devoted much of his adult life to the pursuit of freedom through pedagogic reforms.

Item Type: Book Section
Keywords: Decolonizing education | India | Tagore | Philosophy | Southern theory
Subjects: Social Sciences and humanities > Arts and Humanities > Philosophy
Social Sciences and humanities > Social Sciences > Education
JGU School/Centre: International Institute for Higher Education Research & Capacity Building
Depositing User: Mr. Syed Anas
Date Deposited: 12 Feb 2022 11:44
Last Modified: 12 Feb 2022 11:44
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013...
URI: https://pure.jgu.edu.in/id/eprint/1221

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

Actions (login required)

View Item
View Item