Annual Report 2013 - Universität Göttingen

Annual Report 2013

Transnational Research Group

Poverty and Education in India

With project partners from: Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, Delhi + Centre for Modern Indian Studies, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen + Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi + German Historical Institute London + King’s India Institute, King’s College London + Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies, School of Social Sciences, JNU, Delhi

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Project Partners:

• ProfessorRaviAhuja,CentreforModernIndianStudies,Georg-August-UniversitätGöttingen

• DrSaradaBalagopalan,CentrefortheStudyofDevelopingSocieties,Delhi• ProfessorNeeladriBhattacharya,CentreforHistoricalStudies,JNU,Delhi• ProfessorAndreasGestrich,GermanHistoricalInstituteLondon• DrValeskaHuber,GermanHistoricalInstituteLondon• ProfessorSunilKhilnani,King’sIndiaInstitute,King’sCollege,London• ProfessorJanakiNair,CentreforHistoricalStudies,JNU,Delhi• ProfessorGeethaB.Nambissan,ZakirHusainCentreforEducational

Studies,SchoolofSocialSciences,JNU,Delhi• DrJahnaviPhalkey,King’sIndiaInstitute,King’sCollege,London• DrIndraSengupta,GermanHistoricalInstituteLondon• DrSilkeStrickrodt,GermanHistoricalInstituteLondon• ProfessorRupaViswanath,CentreforModernIndianStudies,

Georg-August-UniversitätGöttingen

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Table of Contents

1. General Report 5

2. Project Reports 10A. CriticalMindandLabouringBody:CasteandEducationReforms

inKerala 10B. EffectsofIndustrialDeclineonEducationinUrbanIndia:

AStudyofMumbai’sEx-Millworkers’HouseholdDecisionsonChildren’sSchooling,1980s-Present 13

C. RefugeeSettlementandtheRoleofEducationinCalcutta,1947-1967 16

D. MoralEducationandBio-Politics.InternationalMovements,FemaleAgency,andEducationalReforminLateColonialIndia 18

E. Whatexclusionleavesout:The“life-worlds”ofeducationalpolicymakingincontemporaryIndia 20

F. DevelopmentthroughEducation!?AnEthnographyofEducationandSocialMobilityinRuralIndia 22

G. EducationasaTransformativeAgenda:TheStatusofEzhavasandPulayasinTwentiethCenturyKerala 24

H. PrimedtoLabour:‘Education’inIndustrialandArtisanSchoolsofColonialIndia(1860s-1940s) 26

I. SchoolingforWomen:TheUnitedProvinces(1854-1920) 29

3. Events 32A. TRGEvents 32B. OtherEvents 36

4. People 38

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PrefaceAndreas Gestrich, Director German Historical Institute London

ThisisthefirstAnnualReportonwhat,forallpartiesinvolved,hasbeenthestartofanexcit-ingexperiment.First,theMaxWeberFounda-tionanditsgoverningbodiesdecidedtotryoutanewformat.Itaskeditsmemberinstitutestocomeupwithsuggestionsforafive-yearprojectonatopicandwithanorganizationalstructureoftheirchoice,theonlyconditionbeingthatitwastoincludepartnersnotonlyfromGermanyand the institutes’ respective host countries,butalsofromacountrywheretheFoundationwas not so far represented. For its members,thisTransnationalResearchGroupwasalsoanexperiment in new forms of multilateral andinternationalcollaboration.Oursuccessfulpro-posal combined elements of an internationalPhDtrainingprogrammewiththoseofacollab-orative research centre involving postdoctoralandseniorscholarsfromDelhi,GöttingenandLondon,andinternationalvisitingfellowswhocanjointhegroupatanyoneofitsthreeloca-tions.Ithasbeenawonderfulexperiencetoseethisgroupgrowtogetherquicklyonthebasisofajointacademicinterestinitsthematicfocuson“PovertyandEducation in India”,commonstandards in academic research and tuition,and a shared curiosity in this experiment intransnationalcooperation.

That this first Annual Report can alreadypresent substantial results is due not only tothegreatenthusiasmofthescholarsinvolved,but also to the invaluable help received frommanysides,withoutwhichthiscouldnothavebeen achieved. The Max Weber Foundationprovidesgenerousfundingaswellaslegalandadministrativehelp through itsmainoffice in

Bonn.ParticularthanksgototheFoundation’sPresident,ProfessorHeinzDuchhardt, and itsExecutiveandDeputyExecutiveDirectors,Dr.Harald Rosenbach and Dr. Bernhard Roscher.TheprimeresponsibilityfortheTransnationalResearchGroup’sfinancialandorganizationalmatters lieswith theGermanHistorical Insti-tute London, whose former administrative di-rector,WolfgangHaack,sparednoeffortinhisfinalyearinofficetosupportusinsettingupthegroup.Hissuccessor,CarmenHamburger,tookoverinDecember2013andalongwithSueEvans,JürgenFlachandNinaMuthmakesupthe London team which now takes good careof theTRGinadditionto itsdailyworkofad-ministeringa research institute inLondon. InGöttingen Dr. Holk Stobbe gives his vital andnever-failingsupporttoallGermany-basedop-erations of the group, and in our Delhi officeRohanSethandSukantiEkkaprovideprofes-sionalhelpinallitseverydayneedsofstudentsandprojectpartnersinIndia.WeareluckytohavefoundasupportivelandlordintheAmer-icanInstituteofIndianStudies,Delhi,whohasgiven invaluable assistance in administrativematters. Our special thanks go to its Direc-tor-General Purnima Mehta and to RajenderKumar.Aboveall,however,itistheunceasingeffortandgreatforesight,efficiencyandinter-culturalexperienceofDr.IndraSengupta,thegroup’s Academic Coordinator, which keepsit together and moving forward. Our specialthanksgotoher.

April2014

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The Transnational Research Group“Poverty Reduction and Policy forthePoorbetween theState andPri-vateActors:EducationPolicyinIndiasincetheNineteenthCentury”cameintoexistenceon1 January2013. Itwas initiatedbyaresearchcompeti-tion announced by the Max WeberStiftung in 2011 for a transnationalresearch group to be set up by oneof its research institutes in cooper-ation with international researchpartners.Theresearchagendaofthegroup emerged from the collectiveresearch interestsofseniorscholarsat the Jawaharlal Nehru Universityand theCentre for theStudyofDe-

veloping Societies Delhi, the CentreforModernIndianStudiesGöttingen,Kings College India Institute andGerman Historical Institute Londonintheinterfacebetweeneducationalpolicy, mass education and povertyreduction,focusingasmuchonstateaswellascommunityaction.

1. General ReportIndra Sengupta, Academic Coordinator, TRG

TRG workshop and meeting, Delhi, 10-14 December 2013

photo courtesy of Kate Tranter

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The TRG set out its inter-discipli-naryresearchagendabyidentifyingthe following 7 designated researchareas, tobestudiedbyseniorschol-ars and junior researchers from thedisciplines of history, education,andeducational sociology: 1)Nine-teenth and twentieth-century globaleducational reform movements andtheir impact on universal schoolingin India; 2) The quest for universalelementary/school education, theprivate sector and edu-business; 3)Caste discrimination and educationpolicy; 4) Industrial restructuring,informalization, and their conse-quencesforaccesstoelementaryed-ucation; 5) Adult education and thepopularisation of practical scientificknowledge;6) Industrialandtechni-cal institutions and the resignifica-tionofmanuallabour;7)Theimpactofschoolingonlifehistories.

In the reportyear the researchpro-gramme of the TRG was completedwiththeawardofatotalof9fellow-ships. The fellowships were widelyadvertised in two rounds (in June

and December 2013 respectively)in leading international and nation-al academic job placement journalsand forums, especially in India, theUK and Germany. The response,especially in thesecondround,wasrobust: clearly, the research agendaof theTRGhadbecomewell-known.Of the fellowships awarded, 5 wereawarded fordoctoraland4 forpost-doctoral research projects. The doc-toralfellowshipswereawardedfor2years,withthepossibility toextendby another 2 years (4 years in all);the postdoctoral fellowships wereawardedforoneyear,tobeextendedupon successful review of progressbyuptoanother18months.Ofthese,threedoctoral fellowsareregisteredat Göttingen University (Centre forModern Indian Studies), two underthesupervisionofTRGPrincipalIn-vestigator Rupa Viswanath and onesupervised by Patrick Eisenlohr atCeMISbutjointlysupervisedbyTRGPrincipalInvestigatorsinDelhi.TwodoctoralfellowsareregisteredattheJawaharlal Nehru University (JNU)New Delhi under the supervision

Office of the AIIS-GHIL Delhi Program/TRG in Delhi

photo courtesy of Wolfgang Haack

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of TRG Principal Investigator JanakiNair. All doctoral fellows are co-su-pervised by TRG partners at a TRGpartner institution where they arenotprimarilyaffiliated.

Of the postdoctoral fellows, two areaffiliatedwithCeMISGöttingen,onewith JNU Delhi and one with theCentreforStudiesinDevelopingSo-cieties(CSDS)Delhi.Allpostdoctoralfellows are mentored by two Princi-palInvestigatorsoftheTRG.Almostall theprojects of theTRG researchfellows require lengthy periods ofstay inLondonand theUK inordertouse the richarchivalholdingsonthe subject in this country. Duringthistime,allresearchfellowswillbeaffiliatedwiththeGHILondon.

The bulk of the applications for fel-lowships at both doctoral and post-doctoral level came fromyounghis-torians; hence, a large majority ofresearch projects have a historicalfocus andperspective, startingwiththe history of education for povertyalleviation in colonial India in themiddle of the nineteenth centurydowntotheeducationalexperimentsofthestateandprivatesectorsinlate1990sandearly2000s.The themesaddressed by the research fellows

includemass schooling for thepoorandforwomen,educationtofacilitatesocial (caste)mobility, theschoolingof the children of industrial labour-ers, and global educational move-ments and the schooling of women(see individual reports that followthisreport).Mostoftheawardswerein theresearchareas1,2,3,and6.Theresearch interestsof theprinci-palinvestigatorsspansalmostalltheresearchareas.

Intensive efforts were made to ex-pandtheresearchoutputoftheTRGbeyond the projects of the TRG fel-lows. Several principal investigatorsstarted their own smaller researchprojects within the broader frame-work of the research agenda of theTRG. A small research budget wasset aside for this purpose for eachprincipal investigator. Of these pro-jects two, in particular, made quickstart: 1) a studyon “Schooling,Dis-advantage and Privilege: Choices,strategiesandpracticesofpoorandmiddleclassfamilies”,ledbyGeethaB. Nambissan, JNU, and 2) an oralhistoryproject on theexperienceofeducation ofnon-elites in independ-entIndia,ledbyJanakiNair,JNU.Theremaining projects of the principalinvestigatorswillstartinearly2014.

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Further,fivepapershavebeencom-missionedfromleadingeducationistsand educational sociologists at vari-ouscentresofeducationanduniver-sities in India (Manabi Majumdar,Nandini Manjrekar, Poonam Batra,Farida Khan, and AR Vasavi) to bepublishedintheworkingpapersse-ries of the TRG. The papers will bepublished under the aegis of TRGprincipalinvestigatorGeethaB.Nam-bissan(JNU).Thefirstdraftsareex-pectedinApril2014andtheseriesisexpectedtobeavailableonlinefromthemiddleof2014onwards.TheTRGenvisagesabiannualmeet-ingof thewholegroupwiththe fol-lowingaims:1)toprovidethewholegroup with the opportunity to meetand discuss TRG matters and thusdevelop the core identity of a re-searchgroup;2) toprovidedoctoral

andpostdoctoralfellowswiththeop-portunitytopresenttheirworktothewholegroupandgetfeedbackontheprogressoftheirresearchprojects;3)toprovideanopportunity to the fel-lowstomeetandexchangeideaswitheachother; 4) toprovide aplatformforprojectpartnersandprincipalin-vestigators todiscuss indetail theirplanned research projects withinthe scope of the TRG; 5) to discussproblemsandperspectivesaffectingthe research agenda of the group,and6)toprovideaforumtodiscusstheteethingtroublesoftheTRGwiththe administrative staff of the con-cernedinstitutionsandtotrytofindconstructive solutions to the manyadministrative problems associatedwithatransnationalresearchprojectinvolving three often divergent cul-turesofacademicadministration.

Public lecture by Geetha B. Nambis-san, Göttingen, 3 June 2013

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In 2013, two such workshops tookplace, both of which were deemedintellectuallyveryfruitful.Inparticu-lar,thePhDfellowsfoundthistobeanexcellentplatformtodiscusstheirresearch with all members of thegroupandgetconstructivefeedbackontheirwork.ThefirstworkshopoftheTRGwasheldatCeMISGöttingenon3-4June2013.AllmembersofthegroupaswellasadministrativestafffromCeMISGöttingenandGHILon-donattended.Thiswasfollowedbyasecond workshop, which took placeinDelhion10-13December2013.

Inadditiontothetwoworkshops,thegrouporganisedthefollowingevents:1) anoralhistoryworkshopat JNU,Delhi,on19-20October2013;2)are-viewworkshoponthecommissionedarticles forpublicationintheonlineworkingpapers seriesof thegroup,CSDS,Delhi,14December2013.

Two members of the TRG gavepublic talks in Göttingen and Lon-don respectively in June 2013:Geetha B. Nambissan (JNU): Privateschools for the poor and children’sright toeducation: somereflectionsfromIndia,Göttingen,3June2013

Neeladri Bhattacharya (JNU): Law,Violence and the Colonial Modern,GHILondon,11June2013

Further, the work of the TRG wasrepresented at conferences organ-isedbythirdparties,atwhichsever-alPhDandpostdoctoral fellowsandprincipal investigators tookpart, forexample, at the Annual ConferenceoftheComparativeEducationSocietyof India, Calcutta, 28-30 December2013.Similaractivitiesaswellascol-laborative conferences are plannedfor2014.

Finally,twopointsrelatedtothead-ministrativestructureoftheTRG:theoffice of the TRG in Delhi has beenrunningsince1October2012.Withtheappointmentofanofficemanager(RohanSeth)inJanuary2013andanofficeassistant/receptionist(SukantiEkka)inMarch2013,ithasprovidedgreat support to doctoral and post-doctoral fellows as well as projectpartners in India. Secondly, the ex-tremely complicated process of reg-istrationoftheTRGofficeinDelhiastheofficeofan internationally-fund-ededucationalcharityisunderway.

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Project synopsis

Exploring the various educationalreform programs implemented inprimary schools and high schoolsin Keralam in India in the last twodecades,myprojectseekstoanalyzethedichotomousconceptsofmentaland manual labour, theoretical andpractical knowledge, and generaland technical education which con-stitutedthepremiseofthesereforminterventions. The work focuses onthe crucial connection between thereproduction of the above conceptsandcasteasitispracticedincontem-poraryKeralam.

Work done in report year

As the first part this project I havefinishedfourmonthfieldworkwhichincluded ethnographic and archivalstudies. I started my ethno-graphicworkbyinterviewingthemainactorsinthecurriculumreformprocess inthe1990sand2000s.This includedtheexpertsand faculty inS.C.E.R.T,schoolteacherswhowerepartofthestate level syllabus and curriculumreform workshops and faculty invarious District Institute of Educa-tionandTraining (DIET)whohadacrucialroleinthereformprocess.Asa continuationof this, I interviewed

2. Project ReportsA. Critical Mind and Labouring Body: Caste and Education Reforms in Kerala

Sunandan Kizhakke Nedumpally, Postdoctoral Fellow

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around 50 school teachers in Palak-kad and Malappuram Districts whohaveteachingexperiencebothintheoldandnewcurriculum.Thesecondpartoftheethnographicworkinclud-ed field work in two Dalit colonies,one in PalakkadDistrict and one inMalappuram District and 4 schoolsinwhichchildrenfromthesecoloniesarestudying.Iconductedinterviewswith threegenerationsofDalit fam-ilies and collected their narrativesabout their schooling experience,their expectations from educationandtheircriticismregardingtheed-ucationalreforms.IalsointerviewedDalit scholarsandactivists for theiranalysisofeducationsystemingen-eralandtheeducationalreformpro-cessinparticular.

Aspartof thearchivalwork, Ihavecollected various reports of educa-tional committees constituted inthis period, minutes and reports ofstate level workshops, handbooksandnotesforBlockanddistrictlevelteacherstrainingprogramsfromtheS.C.E.R.Tlibrary.Ihavecollectedar-ticles written in journals and news-papers defending and opposing thereformprocessforanalyzinghowtheconceptofmentalandmanuallabourand caste discrimination played outinthesedebates.Ihavealsocollectedtextbooks published for the old andnewcurriculum.

Ihavewritten twopapersusing thedata from this field work. The firstpaper is titled as “Inhabiting TwoWorlds:DalitsandSchoolEducationinKeralam.”Thispaperanalyzedthedeeplyembeddedpracticesofcasteintheschooleducationsystem.InthisanalysisIexploredtheDalitattemptstoinhabittwoworldsofexperiencingwhichismarkedasknowingpracticeandknowledgeproduction. Thepa-per analyzed the various aspects ofthese two worlds and mapped Dalitinteractions and negotiations inthese two worlds. It also inquiredhow the epistemological problem ofknowledge has been translated intoaproblemofcastehierarchythroughthe daily practices in school and inaDalit colony.Schoolhasbecomeasite of caste identification and dis-criminationforDalitsevenafter theeducational reforms which intendedtoovercomethedichotomyofmentalandmanuallabour.

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The second paper is titled “CriticalMind and Labouring Body: Casteand Education Reforms in Kerala.”Analyzingthedebateoneducationalreform processes in Keralam in the1990sand2000s, thispapersoughttounderstandtheroleofthedichot-omous conceptualizations of mindand body and mental and manuallabourinreproducingthecolonial–Brahmanical notions of knowledge.This unsettled debate regarding theeducational practices in Keralambringsoutthevariousaspectsofthecontemporary crisis of the coloni-al-Brahmanical model of knowledgeproduction.Iarguedthatthoughtheproblemof thismodel isrecognizedat various points of the debate, thefundamental of this model is keptintact or even reinforcedbyvariousstakeholders of the educational re-formprocesses.

In this paper I attempted to under-standhowthebinaryofmentalandmanual labourwasdeployed,appro-priated and challenged in the edu-cation reform process started fromthe1990s,inrelationtothecontem-porary caste practices in Keralam.This paper analysed the documentsproduced by State Council for Edu-cation and Training (SCERT) KeralaandKeralaSastraSahithyaParishad(KSSP) a non-governmental organ-ization which played a crucial rolein the reform processes. The paper

traced thegenealogyof the conceptofknowledgeandthenexploredtheeducation reform processes in the1990s and the first decade of thetwenty-firstcentury.

Publicatons, conferences attended,talksrelevanttoproject:• Presented a paper at the TRG

Workshop,atGottingen• Presentedthepapertitled“Inhab-

itingTwoWorlds:DalitsandSchoolEducationinKeralam.”AttheTRGWorkshop at Jawaharlal NehruUniversity,NewDelhi.

• Presentedthepapertitled“CriticalMind and Labouring Body: CasteandEducationReformsinKerala.”at the annual conference of Com-parativeEducationSocietyofIndiaatKolkatain2013December.

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Project synopsis

Mumbai city has transformedfromanindustrialtoaservicesectoreconomywhichrequiresaworkforcewith altogether different skills andknowledge. It is against this back-dropthisprojectexploresMumbai’sex-millworkers’ children’s schoolingdecisions since the 1980s and ex-amines various factors that affectededucational attainment of ex-mill-workers’ children. It addresses thefollowing central question: How didthe industrial decline and the even-tualclosuresoftextilemillsinMum-bai influence workers’ householddecision-makingwithregardtotheirchildren’s education?This studybe-gins by analyzing the qualitativeandquantitativesurveydataon theeducationalaspectofex-millworkersandtheirchildrenthatwascollectedduringmydoctoralfieldwork.Inmydoctoral thesis titled The Unmaking of the Worker-Self in Post-Industrial Mumbai: A Study of Ex-Millworkers’ Responses to the Closure of Textile Mills in Girangaon I have examinedMumbai’s ex-millworkers responsestotheirjoblossasaresultoftextilemills closures since the late 1990s.The issue of children’s educationcameupduringthequalitativeinter-views conducted formydoctoral re-search.Inaddition,thesurveydataof924 ex-millworkers’ household con-

tains information on ex-millworkersandtheirchildren’seducationalandoccupationalattainment.

This study builds upon this alreadycollected information by looking atex-millworkers’ children’s schoolingdecisions since the 1980s. It alsoaims toexamine thesocio-economicconditionsathouseholdlevel,intheneighbourhoodsandtheschoolitselfthat affected children’s educationalattainment.Aspertheplanin-depthinterviews have been conductedamong ex-millworkers’ households,schoolteachers,teachers’unionlead-ers,ex-millworkers’childrenandor-ganisations involved with the issueof education for the poor. The focusonchildren’seducation,particularlyamongthepoorfamilies,isimportantasitdeterminesinasignificantwaytheir future occupational preferenc-es.InthecontextofMumbaithisis-suebecomesparticularly significantas therearehardlyanypossibilitiesofobtainingbetterpaidemploymentforlesseducatedindividuals.

B. Effects of Industrial Decline on Education in Urban India: A Study of Mumbai’s Ex-Millworkers’ Household Decisions on Children’s Schooling, 1980s-Present

Sumeet Mhaskar, Postdoctoral Fellow

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I began the postdoctoral fellowshipwith theTRG in June2013.The fol-lowing is a report of theworkdonesincethebeginningofmyfellowship.

June-July2013

Statistical Analysis and Preparation of Research Questions:Duringfirst twomonthsofthefellowshipIwasbasedin Göttingen. I was mainly workingonthestatisticalsurveydatasetthatwas collected during my doctoralresearch. Using this data set I wasanalysing the trends on educationalattainmentamongMumbai’sex-mill-workers children based on parentaleducation,gender,casteandreligion.Theresultsthatcamefromthestatis-ticalanalysiswereusedforpreparingquestions for conducting interviewsinMumbai.

Familiarising with Relevant Literature:Inadditiontoworkingonthesurveydataset,Ifamiliarisedmyselfwiththeliteratureoneducationandpoverty.Ialsoparticipatedindiscussingsomeimportant texts related to my worksuchastheonesbyPierreBourdieuandPaulWilliswithotherTRGmem-bersinGöttingen.Lastly,Iwasre-es-tablishingmycontactsinMumbaiinordertoconductthefieldwork.

August-September2013

ThiswasmyfirsttriptoMumbaifordatacollectionfortheTRGproject.

Conducting Interviews:Ihaveconduct-edinterviewswithMumbai’sex-mill-workers children, school teachers,principalsandactivistscampaigningfor the Shikshan Bachao Abhiyan(Movement for Saving Education). Ihavealsotriedtore-visitsomeoftheex-millworkers’ families I had inter-viewedformydoctoralresearch.

BrihanMumbai Shikshak Sabha (Teachers Unions) and “Movement for Saving Education”: I have alsointerviewedmembersoftheBrihan-Mumbai Shikshak Sabha (BMSS), aMumbai based teachers union thatworks among the primary teacherssince1973.Ihavealsophotographedall the available annual reports ofthisunionfrom1973tothepresent.Ihavecollecteddocumentsfromthe“Movement for Saving Education”which has been actively resistingmunicipalitiesattempttoclosedowntheschoolsforthepoor.

Communist Party and Shivaji Vidya-laya: Ihaveinterviewedmembersofthe local Communist Party of India(Marxist) inWorliwhohadsuccess-fully resisted the closureof one theschools. I have also collected somepamphlets from their initiatives. Ihave also managed to collect infor-mation about the enrolment datafromShivajiVidyalayainAbhudyadaNagar which is located in the heartoftheworkingclassdistrictofMum-bai.Theschoolhassofarsharedtheenrolment information for the lasttenyears.Theschoolhasalsoshownwillingness in sharing SSC results

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from their schools based on caste,religion, gender and income for thelast10years.

Paper Writing for the December 2013 Workshop:During thisperiod ofmyfellowship I was mainly focusingon writing a paper titled Exploring Educational Attainment in a Post-in-dustrial City for the December 2013workshop held in Jawaharlal NehruUniversity.Thepaper IwrotewasacombinationofthestatisticalsurveyanalysisthatIhaddonebeforeIleftforfieldworkandtheinterviewsandnewdataIcollectedduringthefieldtriptoMumbai.

Interviews and Data Collection:Afterthe workshop in Delhi I conductedthreeweeksoffieldworkinMumbai.DuringthisroundoffieldworkIhaveinterviewed a few ex-millworkers’childrenwhohavemanagedtocom-pletetheireducationandfindbetteremployment in the city. I have alsomanaged to obtain quarterly newsmagazinecalledAsmita(Pride)from2004-2013 which is run and man-agedbytheteachersunion–BrihanMumbaiShikshakSabha(BMSS).

January2014-Present

IhavepresentedarevisedversionoftheDecember2013workshoppaperon28January2014attheHistoryRe-searchGroupSeminarconductedbyProf.RaviAhuja.Iamnowrevisingitagainforsubmissionto Development and Changewhichisaninternation-ally recognised peer reviewed jour-

nal. After sending this paper to thejournalIwillstartworkingonanewpaper for the July workshop that isscheduledtobeheldinLondon.

I will also start working on papersI will present in July at the Young South Asia Scholars MeetinZurichand in September at the 50th Ger-man Historikertag in Göttingen. IhaveplannedashortresearchtriptoMumbaifrom8-27March2014.

Publications, conferences attended, talks relevant to project

Effects of Industrial Decline on Ed-ucation in Urban India: A Study of Mumbai’s Ex-Millworkers’ Household Decisions on Children’s Schooling, 1980s-Present.TRG1stMeeting,Cen-tre for Modern Indian Studies, Uni-versityofGottingen3-4June2013.

ExploringEducationalAttainmentinaPost-IndustrialCity:A Case Study of Working Class Youths in Mumbai.TRG2nd Meeting, Centre for HistoricalStudies,JawaharlalNehruUniversity,3-4June2013.

Exploring Educational and Occupa-tional Attainment in Post-IndustrialMumbai. History Research GroupSeminar, Centre for Modern IndianStudies,28January2014

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Project Synopsis

I propose to study the role of edu-cationandschool inthe livesof therefugees who settled in and aroundCalcuttaafterthepartitionofBritishIndiain1947.Therefugees,comingfromtheeasternpartoftheerstwhileprovince of Bengal, spread all overWestBengalandinotherpartsofIn-dia. But amajor concentrationwasinthegreaterCalcuttaregion,wheremany‘colonies’cameup.Thesecolo-nieswereanovelanddistinctspatialarrangement in the urban morphol-ogy. And almost all the colonieshadaprimaryschool. Thestudyofthese schools – where and how didthey come up, who were the teach-ers,whatwasthecurriculum–andthegeneralroleofeducationinthesesettlements will reveal complex so-cio-economic dynamic of a popula-tiontryingtocarveoutanicheonanewterrain.

Thegovernment, from time to time,cameupwithvariouspoliciestomeetthepressingdemandsthatthishugeinfluxofpeopleputonit.Iwillstudythe different programme – for gen-eral education as well as vocationaltraining–thatwereinitiatedbythegovernment. In this process, therefugees had to negotiate with theerstwhile residents of the city. Thepartition,basedonreligion,madethepositionoftheMuslimpopulationinCalcuttavulnerable. Therewasdis-

C. Refugee Settlement and the Role of Education in Calcutta, 1947-1967

Kaustubh Mani Sengupta, Postdoctoral Fellow

tinctspatialreorganisationofthecitywhichaffectedtheMuslims,andhowintheprocesstheMuslimeducation-al institutes in the citygot affected.This iscrucial foranunderstandingof theoverall situation. Mostoften,while focusingontherefugeepopu-lation,one tends to forgetabout thehost population, more specifically,the condition of the minority. Theproject,ononehand,triestofocusonlocalissuesandetchoutadensepic-ture of various processes related toeducationalinstitutionsandpolicies,and on the other, wants to open upacrucialbutneglectedaspectofpar-titionstudies. Also, itseeksto lookinto the way the refugees tried tomakeamarkonthemapofthecity,where a tangled web of land-locali-ty-finance/cultural capital operatedincreatingtheeducationspace.


IhavestartedworkingontheprojectfromOctober2013. Ihave lookedatnewspapersandgovernmentreports.I tried to weave together a gener-al picture of refugee students andteachers, the problems they facedinrehabilitatinginWestBengalandthevariousschemesproposedbythegovernmentinalleviatingtheirgriev-ances.InthelastthreemonthsIhavelookedatthreesetsofsources.First,theofficialreportsandpublications.Inthese,theimportantreportsare:

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• AnnualReportsof theMinistryofRefugeeandRehabilitationDepart-ment,1948-1959.

• S.Guha,StudiesinSocialTensionsamongtheRefugees fromEasternPakistan,MemoirNo.1,1954,De-partmentofAnthropology,Govern-mentofIndia,1959.

• ‘Educational Facilities for Dis-placed Persons from East Paki-stan’, GOI, Ministry of Rehabilita-tion,1960.

• ReportoftheCommitteeofMinis-ters for the Rehabilitation of Dis-placedPersons,Calcutta,1954.

Second, I have looked at variousmemoirs, autobiographies, and col-ony-histories. These books give anideaofthewaythevariouscolonieswere set-up by the refugees, howdid they negotiate the local peopleas well as the government, and therole of education and culture in thecolony.Thesenarrativesareextreme-lyimportantinstudyingtheattitudeofthepeopletowardseducationandhowthatwasrelatedtothesocialdi-visionamongtherefugees.

Third, I have consulted the Englishdaily,AmritaBazaarPatrika, fortheyears1947-1959. The reports in thenewspapersgenerallyfocusedontheplightoftherefugeestudents,theab-ject poverty they had to face in thenew land and bureaucratic hasslesin getting themselves incorporatedin the new schools and colleges. Ihave come across numerous letterswrittenby therefugeestudentsandaddressed to the editor that revealthe difficulties of being displacedstudentsandtheirexpectationsfromthegovernmentauthorities.

Apart from these, I have startedmaking contacts with some of theinmatesof these colonies for takinginterviews.Iwilltrytogetasenseoftheirbelongingtothesecoloniesandthe role the schools and educationingeneralplayed in the livesof therefugees.


Presented ‘Of Colonies, Camps, andSchools: Refugee Education in WestBengal’ at the Comparative Educa-tion Society of India (CESI) AnnualInternational Conference, “Educa-tion,DiversityandDemo-cracy”,28-30December,2013atIndianStatisti-calInstitute,Kolkata.

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Project synopsis

The post-doctoral research projectaims to analyze educational reformactivitiesinIndiainrelationtoglobaleducationalreformmovements,from1882totheinterwarperiod.Thefirstcasestudyisthecampaignforthein-troduction of Scientific TemperanceInstruction (STI) into regular schoolcurricula.Thesecondanalyzedmove-mentaimedatthepromotionofsys-tematiceducationforpre-schoolchil-dren. Both educational movementsstrongly relied on women as publiccampaigners and professional edu-cators,deployingnotionsofwomanlyskillstocareforyoungchildrenandtheir responsibilities as ‘mothers oftherace’.Both,thepromotionofSTIandtheeffortstoexpandandreformkindergarten education rested onthe assumption that social progresscommenceswith themoral trainingof children. This training had to bebacked up by scientific knowledgeabout health, hygiene, and repro-duction.Increasingly,thesystematicstudyofchildpsychologyanddevel-opmentwassupposedto informthedesignofpedagogicalmethodssuitedtoformchildrenintoconscious,mor-alsubjects.

Analysing global currents, in whichfemale agency and notions of femi-ninityandmotherhoodplayedacru-cial role, the project seeks to add anew perspective on the educationaldevelopment in late colonial India.Moreover, the focus on the bio-po-litical frameofeffortstochangethecontent, pedagogy, and outlook ofpublic primary schools and set upkindergartens can show how repro-duction becomes an important ref-erence point for social reform andsocialpolicy.


IjoinedtheTRGinGöttingenonJune1,2013.Inpreparationoftheproject,Ididarchivalresearchinthearchivesof the international women’s organ-isation, on which one of the casestudies(andpotentialchaptersofherHabilitation), is centered: the Wom-en’s Christian Temperance Union(WCTU).IvisitedtheFrancisWillardArchivesinChicagoinApril,2013.

Since joining the TRG, I started toinitiateexchangeofideaswithintheGöttingenbranch.OnJuly4and11,thepostdoctoralfellowsanddoctoralstudents met for an intensive dis-cussion of our respective researchproposals. Moreover, we met to dis-cuss books which might be helpfulto structure work on education andpoverty.Discussionsonresearchde-

D. Moral Education and Bio-Politics. International Movements, Female Agency, and Educational Reform in Late Colonial India

Jana Tschurenev, Postdoctoral Fellow

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velopments and joint readings willcontinuevia skypeuntil the fellowsarebacktogetherinGöttingen.

Ongoing activities include editing abook manuscript (“Imperial Experi-mentsinEducation”)forpublication,preparing the publication of an ed-ited volume on global moral reformactivism (“Biopolitik und Sittlich-keitsreform”)fortheCampusGlobalHistorySeries(togetherwithformercolleagues from Zurich), and re-searching funding opportunities forsettingupa smaller researchgroupinassociationwiththeTRGaftertheendofmyTRGfellowship.Iamalsopartoftheorganizingcommitteeforthe YSASM Workshop “RethinkingInequality inSouthAsia” inZurich,July 2014, which might offer someinterestingperspectivesontheprob-lemofpovertyandeducation.

From October 1, 2013 to September30,2014,Iamonparentalleave.

Publications, conferences attended, talks relevant to projectJune 3-4, 2013: Project presentationat the TRG workshop in GöttingenJune28&29,2013:Attendanceof8thHumboldt India Project (HIP) Work-shop, followedbyworkingmeetingswithMonikaFreier(MPIBerlin)andSimoneHolzwarth(HUB),discussingmy research proposal, possibilitiesfor future cooperation, and SimoneHolzwarth’s dissertation on manuallabourinGandhianBasicEducation/the “Wardha Scheme” (1937-52).July 19, 2013: Working Meeting atMPI Berlin with Margit Pernau andRazakKhan,andSimoneHolzwarth,discussing long-term possibilities tobringtogetherresearchon“newed-ucation” / Reformpädagogik in the20thcentury.

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Project Synopsis

MyresearchexaminesthecreationofnarrativesanddiscoursesaroundeducationalpoliciesinIndiafromthemid-80sandsubjectsofpolicies,pri-marilywomenandgirlsfrommargin-alisedcommunities.Theobjectivesoftheresearcharetoexaminethehis-torical,political,and liveddynamicsthat shape -- and complicate -- thecategories, imperativesandassump-tionsofpolicy-making.Byembeddingpolicy debates and practices in eth-nographiclifehistories,Ihopetoillu-minate the`bigpicturedata’gener-atedbytheIndianstate.Theresearchwill interrogate the many binaries— for example included/excluded,powerful/ powerless, and structure/agency—through which policies andlivesaretypicallyexamined.SomeofthequestionsIaskare:Inthecontextofeducationhowis‘exclusion’actu-allylivedandexperienced,andwhatdoes this tellusabouthow itmightbeundone?Inwhatwayshaseduca-tion enabled new opportunities andsubjectivitiestoevolve?Howdo‘tar-getpopulations’asbothsubjectsandobjectsofpolicies,shapediscourses,policies and programmes? What in-formstheiraspirationsandstrategicchoicesrelatedtoeducation?

Iuse“life-worlds”consciouslyinmytitle to encompass policies, life his-tories of “subjects” and the macrocontextwithinaconnectedanalyticalframedrawingontheunderstandingthat policies are not just texts butarelived.Iwillemployafeministap-proach to conduct my ethnographicwork, thus interrogating multiple,intersecting and mediated powerrelations. Drawing on FoucauldiannotionsofgovernmentalityIwillex-amine the modern state’s exerciseofpowerthroughanensembleofin-stitutions, procedures, analysis andtactics.

My research work will be ground-ed in Bundelkhand region of UttarPradesh, specifically Banda andChitrakoot,bothdistrictsmarkedbyextreme poverty. My “subjects” willbe drawn from three “generations”ofpolicieseachwithitsowndistinctcombination of discourses, educa-tionalinitiatives,socio-economicandpoliticalimperatives.Beginningwiththe narratives of individual womenand moving outwards to encompassthe family, community and institu-tions, particularly those related toeducation,Ihopetoachieveaninter-generational perspective on the cir-culationof ideas, language,andpol-itics and touse this tounpackboththecontinuitiesand theruptures ineducationalpolicies.

E. What exclusion leaves out: The “life-worlds” of educational policy making in contemporary India

Malini Ghose, PhD Scholar

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Work done in the report year

IjoinedtheTRGprogrammeanden-rolled for my PhD at the Universityof Goettingen in October 2013. AsoutlinedinmyproposalsubmittedtotheTRGIhadplannedtospendmostofthefirstyearinGoettingen,withashorttriptoIndiatoprepareforfieldresearch.Myworkhasprogressedinaccordance with the proposed plan.The main tasks undertaken by meduringtheinitialcoupleofmonths:

Revision of research proposal: I havehaddiscussionswithmysupervisorandotherfacultyandvisitingfacultyattheCentreforModernIndianStud-iesforfurtherinputsbasedonwhichI reworkedsomeaspectsof thepro-posal.IalsoattendedtheTRGSemi-narheldinDelhi,whereIpresentedmyproposaltothelargergroupandsubsequentlymadefurtherrevisionsbasedonthefeedbackreceived.Iseethisasanongoingpartofmywork.

Developing bibliography and struc-tured reading: I spent time develop-ing a bibliography relevant to myresearchwork, forwhichImetwithfaculty and visiting faculty at theCentre for Modern Indian Studies.The bibliography was conceivedaround`themes’andhasbeendevel-opedasastructuredreadingcourse.I have on a regular basis been dis-cussingwhatIhavereadwithmysu-pervisor,bothforgreaterconceptualclarityaswellastosharpenitsrele-vance(ornot)tomyownresearch.Iplan to continue touse thismethodthroughoutmyresearch.

Sharpening Research Methodology: Ihavespenttimeworkingtosharpenmyresearchmethodologyinprepara-tionformyinitialvisittothefieldlo-cation(betweenFebruaryandMarch2014), where I hope to begin theidentification process of the womenandgirlswhose lifehistories Ihopetodevelop.ForthisIwillbespeakingtokeyinformantslocally.

Library research:Besides this Ihavealso spent time understanding thefacilitieslikethelibraryavailableatthe University. I have familiarizedmyself with the electronic, archivesandotherjournalsavailableandhaveused these facilities to expand myreadinglist.

Publications, conferences, talks etc.

TheCentre forModern IndianStud-ies organises a weekly colloquium,whichIhaveregularlyattended

PaperpresentedatthesecondWork-shopoftheTRG,Delhi,10-11Decem-ber2013

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Project synopsis

My project is concerned with thecomplex relations between schooleducation and empowerment in thecontext of the Rishi Valley SatelliteschoolsinruralAndhraPradesh.The12satelliteschoolsofRishiValleyareofspecialinterestinthisregard,first,because here, both an elite school,the famousRishiValleySchool, andaschoolingfacilityfortheruralpoor,theSatelliteSchools,coexistinclos-est proximity. Second, because theunique approach towards educatingtheruralpoorwhichwasdevelopedby theRishiValleySatelliteSchoolsduringthelast26yearsiscurrentlybeingupscaled:itisnowadaysbeingadapted in educational reform pro-jects indifferent statesacross Indiaandworldwideand thushasawidescope.

This project will explore questionsof empowerment through school-ing basing on participants’ (pupils’,teachers’ and parents’) experiencesin the RV Satellite Schools by re-searching into the ways in whichrural school children (and theirparents) experience and negotiateschool education: The project willdeal with the engagement parents

and childrenhaveorhavehadwithschooling, their aspirations and theways they take schooling decisions.Howdocaste,classandgenderaffectschoolchoiceandengagement?Doesunequal engagement lead to newformsofinequality?

Thequestionofwhatkindofeduca-tion different stakeholders envisagefor thepoorwill beat the centerofresearch.Thisproject thusattemptstoshiftthediscourseawayfromthedominantandtaken-forgranted ide-ology of school education being aninherent social good to the ways inwhich this narrative squares withtheeverydaylivesofpoorruralpeo-ple. By contrasting different voicesonwhat,howandwithwhichobjec-tive marginalized children shouldlearn,thisprojectwillcontributetoabroaderdiscussionaroundeducationanddevelopment.


Intensive literature research in thefirst phase of work brought about ashiftinthefocusofmyproject(cf.in-itialprojectproposal).ThisshiftwascomplementedbydefiningtheRishiValley Satellite Schools as researchsetting.

F. Development through Education!? An Ethnography of Education and Social Mobility in Rural India

Lea Griebl, PhD Scholar

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Further, the literature research wasdocumented in a Citavi (=referenceeditor)bibliographywithmore than600 references which will help tokeeptrackofrelevantliteraturedur-ingtheperiodofwritingup.

As methodological preparation forthe explorative phase of fieldworkwhich started in November 2013, Iattended a several days intensivecourseonnarrativeinterviewsunderProfessor Gabriele Rosenthal at theGeorg-AugustUniversityGöttingen.

Further, I was networking with thechairofpedagogiesinthecontextofconductdisordersof Julius-Maximil-ians-University of Würzburg, whichhas an ongoing cooperation withRishi Valley Institute for Education-al Resources headed by Dr. ThomasMüller.

AmongsttheTRGfellowspresentatGöttingen, we read and discussedtheworkofPierreBourdieuandPaulWilliswhichwefoundtoberelevanttotheworkofallofus.

From November 2013 until Febru-ary2014Iundertooktheexplorativephase of fieldwork in Rishi Valley/Andhra Pradesh. Fieldwork was un-dertakenmainly in the formofpar-ticipant observation at schools andin two villages and complementedbyinformalconversationsaswellasnarrative interviews with differentstakeholders both in the SatelliteSchools as well as in the so calledMain School and local governmentschools.ThestayinRishiValleywasalsousedtoacquirebasicsinTelugu,thelocallanguage.


• June 4th/5th 2013: Project pres-entation at the inaugural work-shopofTRGheldattheUniversityofGöttingen.

• December 10th-14th: Paper pres-entationattheTRGworkshopheldatJNUDelhi:Alternativeeducationfor the ruralpoor: inherent socialgoodversusreproductionofsocialinequality.

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Project synopsis

This research is intended at writ-ing a history of education of the la-bouringpoor in latenineteenthandtwentieth century Kerala. It seekstounderstandthevariousnotionsoflabourandpovertythatweresoughtto be imparted through educationto the laboring groups comprisingmostlyso-calledloweranduntoucha-blecastesintheregion.However,thestudy looks beyond a mere chrono-logicalhistoryofschoolingandtakesinto account the larger socio-politi-calprocesses thatwent into theed-ucation of the poor. It will analysevarioussourcesof those involved inthe process such as Protestant mis-sionaries, social reformers, politicalorganisationsandotherstateactors.

The objective is also to examina-tion the intersections of education,class, race and gender. The attemptis to examine pedagogical practicesthat influenced schooling strategiesfor thepoor. Textbooks, agriculturalandindustrialeducationandtechni-

caleducationhavebeensomeoftheavenues through which children oflaboringgroupswerebroughtfacetoface with changing societal notionsandpowerstructures.Theincorpora-tionofhithertoexcludedgroupsintoschoolshadfarreachingunintendedconsequencesaswell.Educationwasnotmeant for impartingbasic skillsin literacy but also to reshape theideaofspatialityandidentity.Itwasused to institute certain regimes ofdiscipliningthoseinvolvedinlabourandinculcatingnewnotionsofwork.

G. Education as a Transformative Agenda: The Status of Ezhavas and Pulayas in Twentieth Century Kerala

Divya Kannan, PhD Scholar

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Inthecurrentreportyear,extensivearchival research was carried outat the United Theological CollegeArchives, Bangalore, Kerala StateArchives (Calicut and Trivandrum),Mathrubhumi Archives (Calicut),TeenMurtiLibrary(NewDelhi)andvarious libraries and research insti-tutions inparts ofKerala. I amcur-rently reading old newspapers andjournals.

Extensivearchivalresearchwascar-riedoutat thearchivesof theBaselMission (Mission 21), Switzerland.Their annual reports, correspond-enceandtextbooksarebeingusedtoformulateaframeworktounderstandthe linkages between education,schoolingandworkinlate19thandearly20thcenturyKerala.


AttendedtheTRG’sfirstworkshopatGottingenandpresentedapaperon‘ChurchMissionarySocietyandEdu-cationinTwentiethCenturyTravan-core’inJune2013.

AttendedtheTRG’ssecondworkshopatJNUandpresentedapaperon‘Ed-ucationforWork:TheBaselMission-arySocietyin20thCenturyMalabar’

Attended the various seminars heldbyCeMISaspartoftheirweeklycol-loquium,September 2013- February2014

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Project synopsis

Insertedwithinthepagesofcontem-porary accounts, yet mostly absentfromthemainstreamhistoriographyarethehistoriesoftheschoolsforthepoorersectionsincolonialIndia.Mythesis is an exercise to uncover therecordsofthese‘absentinstitutions’of educational and labour histories.Thesedidactic institutions (industri-al, reformatory and factory schools,orphanages,children’shomes,work-houses, and railway workshops)were setupbyChristianmissionar-ies, ‘natives’, and colonial mastersto educate (?) poor children whoweredeemedunfit forbook-centred,“proper” schooling. These schoolswereinstitutedwiththeobjectiveofproducingamodern,disciplined,andsemi-skilledworkforceoutofanun-rulyindolentclassoflowcastesanduntouchables, artisans and workers,beggars, vagrants, juvenile offend-ers, fakirs, gamblers, thieves, crim-inal tribes and poorest of the poorEuropeans and Eurasians. Lookingattheatypicalnatureofcurriculum,schooltimings,andpedagogyetc.ofsomeofthespecificeducationalandreformatory institutions where chil-

H. Primed to Labour: ‘Education’ in Industrial and Artisan Schools of Colonial India (1860s-1940s)

Arun Kumar, PhD Scholar

dren’s labourwasexploited toman-ufacturegoodswiththeaimtotrainthem a life of manual labour, theproject asks thequestion: is ithis-toricallyappropriatetoviewtheseasnormal‘schools’?Mythesiswillalsolookattheissuesofpoorchildhood,childlabour,andreproductionofso-cialhierarchies.WhilelookinginandoutoftheBritishEmpire,thethesiswillalsolookattheflowofmissionar-iesfromGermany,Britain,andAmer-icaintotheterritoriesofBritishIndiaand examine the circulation, con-testation, appropriation, and trans-formation of ideas to educate, train,regulate,orderandreformthebodiesofthepoorchildrenbothmorallyandphysically incolonies.By lookingatthe everyday histories of schoolingforthepoorinIndiaatfindesiècle,his work unfolds the shared globalvision of an education marked withpotentialities to reformthefigureofthe ‘poor’ in nineteenth and twenti-ethcentury.Totracethenetworkofclues,hisresearchemploysmission-aryandcolonialwritings,school re-cords,vernacularliterature,andoraltestimonies.

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IjoinedTRG-GHILprogrammeinthemonthofApril,2013withCentreforModernIndianStudies,UniversityofGöttingeninGermanyasmydoctor-al studies centre. With six monthsof pre-doctoral research at NationalArchivesof India, I set forth formyresearchapprenticeshipintoolsandmethods of historical inquiry withguidance of Prof. Rupa VishwanathatGoettingenandProfessorNeeladriBhattacharyaatJNU.InmytrainingatCeMIS,Prof.VishwanathexposedmetothewritingsofFoucault,PierreBourdieu, Louis Althusser, etc. anddiscussedextensivelyaboutmethod-ological interventionsofothersemi-naltexts.ExtensivediscussionswithProf. Vishwanath on key texts andmyresearchprojectwereextremelyhelpfultoexpandandnuancemyre-searchbaseandmethodological rig-our.CeMISallowedmetoparticipateclosely in weekly colloquiums, andreading book discussions. I spentJulyandearlyAugustdaysinexplor-ing the richprimaryandsecondarymaterial Library on Modern SouthAsia at CeMIS and Goettingen Uni-versitylibrary.IalsosharedmynewfindingswithbyProfessorRaviAhu-jaandDr.AdityaSarkarinresearchmeetings.

On 14th August, 2013, I headed formy research work in India. In themonth of August, I heavily utilisedJNUlibrarytoreadsomethesis,Neh-ruMemorialLibraryandDelhiSchoolof Economics library. In researchmeetings,Prof.NeeladriBhattachar-ya empathetically reminded me theempirical value of a historical workandthesimplicityandclarityofthewritingstyle.Hehintedmetoexpandmyresearchquestionsandlookcrit-ically thearchivalmaterial invarie-tyofways,i.e.,thewaycolonialandmissionary archive was produced,fluidityandfixityoftexts,andhistor-icalsourcesthatlivesitslifeoutsidethe archive. Oral History WorkshopatJNUforcedmetoreadonmethodsandtechniquesofconductingoralin-terviewsandtobeawareofpotential-itiesandlimitationsoforalsources.Istartedagaintracingthecluesofmycase in the National Archives of In-diaandbylisteningthestoriesofoldpeoplewhowerepartoftheindustri-al schools. For the latter purpose, IvisitedUTCarchives-arepositoryofmissionaryrecordsandwritingsandIndustrialschoolsinTamilNadu.

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• Presented a paper ‘Histories ofMiscalculation and the Politics ofthePossible:TheReproductionandProductionofSubjects inColonialIndustrial Schools’ at TRG-GHILWorkshop,CeMIS,Göttingen,3rd-4thJune,2013

• Presentedachapteroutline‘Load-ed Childhood’ in Modern IndianHistory Research Group Seminarorganised by Prof. Ravi Ahuja atCeMIS,Göttingen,24th-25thJune,2013.

• Presented and discussed my re-search project ‘Primed to Labour:EducationinIndustrialSchools’atInternational Summer Academy,University of Campinas, Brazil,organised by re:work Centre, Ber-lin,24thNovember-1stDecember,2013

• Presented the paper ‘‘Schooling’(?) Them for Manual Labour: La-bour and Labouring Class in lateColonial India (1880s-1920s)’ atTRG-GHIL Workshop, JNU, 10th –14thDecember,2013

• Presented the paper ‘Histories ofMiscalculation and the Politics ofthe Possible: The ReproductionandProductionofSubjectsinColo-nialIndustrialSchools’attheCESIAnnual International Conference(Theme: Education, Diversity andDemocracy),Kolkata,28th–30thDecember,2013

• Presented the paper ‘GlobalisingtheLocalandLocalisingtheGlob-al:DiscourseonPoor,Poverty,andVagrancy in IndustrialSchools’atInternationalYoungScholar’sCon-ference, JNU,5th–7thFebruary,2014

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Project synopsis

Theproposed researchprojectwillfocus on the school education ofwomen (especially of poor and theunderprivilegedmembersamongtheHindusandMuslims,althoughcom-parisonwillbemadewithothercom-munities)intheUnitedProvincesbe-tween1854and1920.Itwillexploretheeducationaldevelopmentandthereasonsfortheinterestamongpeopleingirls’educationinparticular,espe-cially in the latter part of the 19thcentury. It is an attempt to answerquestionssuchasthefollowing:1)Inwhatwayswastheeducationofwom-ennecessitatedbythealteredsocialand economic transformations inlate 19th century United Provinces?2)Whichspecialgroupsandclassesbenefitted from thenewefforts? 3)Werethereperceptibledifferencesintheprogrammesthataimedatreach-ingthemarginalizedamongthegirlsandwomen,and,ifso,why?4)Whatwas the need or agenda to educatewomenfeltbymissionaries,colonialstateorpeopleofUnitedProvinces?5)Wasthereanyconnectionbetweenwomen’s education and reform ormodernity, or the economic, socialandculturalupliftmentofwomen?6)Whatwerethechallengesandpreju-dicesthatcamewiththeprogressoffemaleeducation?

Comparisons will be made betweenboys’ and girls’ education throughdebates regarding the curriculum,funding,specialschoolsorco-educa-tion, compulsory education and cre-ationofdemandoffemaleeducationthroughthegrantofprivileges.

The attitudes of the colonial State,peoples of United Provinces (dif-ferent castes, classes and variousreform associations), missionaries(ofvariouskinds)andwomenthem-selvestowardseducationwillbean-alysed.

I. Schooling for Women: The United Provinces (1854-1920)

Preeti, PhD Scholar

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Ibecameapartoftheresearchpro-jectinJune2013.Shortlythereafter,in June I visited the U.P. State Ar-chivesandHindiSahityaSammelanLibraryinAllahabad(22ndJune-1stJuly). In the U. P. State Archives, Ilooked into the files of General De-partmentandEducationDepartment.Interestingfilesrelatedtoeducationingeneralandspecificallytowomenwere found, inparticular,filesrelat-ed to women’s question and morespecificeducationsuchasprovisionofschoolsandteachersandmaterni-ty leave to teachersof girls schools.Theyindicatedtheemergenceofnewprofessionsforwomensuchasteach-ing, nursing and doctors. The HindiSahitya Sammelan Library is a richsource of Hindi contemporary jour-nalsandmagazinessuchas‘Marya-da’, ‘Stri Darpan’, ‘Saraswati’, ‘GaurHitkari’,‘Sudha’,‘StriSamaj’,‘SamajSudhar’and‘Lakshmi’.Thesemaga-zinescontainarticleswrittenbymenon various issues, including educa-tion,inthelatenineteenthandearlytwentiethcenturies.Icollectedsomevaluable material from the NationalLibrary and West Bengal State Ar-chives, Kolkata (30th July -15th Au-gust),suchasrareandbrittlebooks(whichImanagedtophotograph)andreports on the issues of education,womenandmissionariesinIndia.The

NationalLibraryisahugestorehouseofE-Dissertationsandtheses.IntheNationalArchivesofIndia,NewDelhi(10th June - 28th July), I looked attheProceedingsofEducation in theHomeDepartmentfilesfrom1880to1910andtheprivatecollectionofpa-perscalled‘JanakDulariCollection’,acollectionofmagazinesofcolonialNorth India. I foundsomeofUnitedProvincesrecordsinPunjab.IvisitedPunjabStateArchivesinPatiala.The‘ReportbytheNorth-WesternProv-inces and Oudh Provincial Commit-tee;withEvidencesTakenBeforetheCommittee,andMemorialAddressedtotheEducationCommission’isveryinterestingandusefultoexploretheview points of peoples of Punjab. Ihavebeen studyingtheholdingsoftheCentralSecretariatLibrary,NewDelhi: I have succeeded in locatingnumerousbooks and reports on ed-ucation in India, gazetteers of vari-ous provinces of United Provinces,reports of the Department of PublicInstruction and reports on populareducation in the United ProvincesaswellIndia,ingeneral.Presently,IamalsolookingatNativeNewspaperReportsinNationalArchivesofIndia.InadditiontotheseprimarysourcesI have been researching secondarysources in the library of JawaharlalNehruUniversity,CentralSecretariatLibrary,NewDelhi.

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Publications:

“Transformation of Schooling in thecolonial Punjab (1850-1900)”, inPa-rimalaRao(ed.)NewPerspectivesintheHistoryofIndianEducation,Del-hi:OrientBlackswan,2013.

Papers presented:

• “Moralizing’Women:EducationintheUnitedProvinces(1854-1930)”,paperpresentedatTRGworkshop,Gottingen,3-4June2013.

• “MeetingLocalneeds:TheIndige-nousEducationSystemofPunjab”,paper presented at seminar on‘TheMakingofModernPunjab:Ed-ucation,ScienceandSocialChangeinPunjabc.1850-c.2000’,PanjabUniversity,24-26thOctober,2013.

• ‘Schooling Women: Some themesfor Discussion from the UnitedProvinces(1854-1930)’,paperpre-sented at TRG workshop, Jawaha-rlal Nehru University, New Delhi,10th-13thDecember2013.

• “Moralizing’Women:EducationintheUnitedProvinces(1854-1930)”,paper also presented at the Inter-national Conference of the Com-parative Education Society for In-dia,CalcuttaUniversity,28th-30thDecember2013.

• “School as site of Discontent-ment: Education of Punjab in lateNineteenth Century”, paper pre-sented in the 74th session Indi-an History Congress, organisedby Ravanshaw University, Cut-tuck, 28th- 30th December, 2013.

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3 – 4 June 2013: TRG Workshop, Göttingen

Monday, 3 June 2013

Introduction:RaviAhuja/AndreasGestrich/ In-draSengupta

ArunKumar:HistoriesofMiscalcula-tionandthePoliticsof thePossible:The Reproduction and Productionof Subjects in Colonial IndustrialSchools

DivyaKannan:Educationasatrans-formative Agenda: The Status ofEzhavas and Pulayas in TwentiethCenturyKerala

Lea Griebl: School versus Child La-bour? A Participatory Approach toIdentity Constructions and Educa-tionalNeedsofWorkingChildreninIndia

Preeti: Schooling for Women: TheUnitedProvinces(1854-1920)

Jana Tschurenev: Moral EducationandBio-Politics.EducationalReformMovements, Social Technology andPedagogy,1882-1940sSumeet Mhaskar: Effects of Indus-trial Decline on Education in UrbanIndia

SunandanKN:CriticalMindandLa-bouring Body:Caste in the Contem-poraryEducationalPracticesinIndia

PIs/ Project Partners:Ravi Ahuja, Rupa Viswanathan, An-dreasGestrich

Public Lecture:Geetha Nambissan: Private schoolsfor the poor and children’s right toeducation: some reflections fromIndia

Tuesday, 4 June 2013

PIs/ Project Partners:ValeskaHuber:EducationandSocialPlanningintheMiddleEastSilke Strickrodt: Christian Mission-ariesandFemaleEducationinSierraLeoneintheNineteenthCenturyJahnaviPhalkey,GeethaNambissan,JanakiNair,NeeladriBhattacharya

TRGPerspectives:opendiscussion

11 June 2013: GHIL Seminar Lecture, Professor. Neeladri Bhat-tacharya (NewDelhi):Law,ViolenceandtheColonialState:IndiaandtheColonialModern

3. EventsA. TRG Events

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19 & 20 October 2013: Oral History Workshop, organised by the Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, Delhi19 October 2013

Introduction:Neeladri Bhattacharya and JanakiNair (Jawaharlal Nehru University,Delhi)

Session One: Form and Meaning in Oral HistoryChitra Joshi (Indraprastha College,DelhiUniversity):1.Alessandro Portelli, ‘Uchronic

Dreams: Working Class Memoryand Possible Worlds’, Oral Histo-ry,Vol16,No.2,Politics(Autumn,1988),pp.46-56.

2.Alessandro Portelli, The Death ofLuigi Trastulli and Other Stories:FormandMeaninginOralHistory,(NewYork:UniversityofNewYorkPress,1991),pp.1-26;45-76.

Student Presentations and Discus-sions

Session Two: Collective / Individ-ual Memory: Janaki Nair (JNU):1.PierreNora“BetweenMemoryand

History: Les Lieux de Memoire”Representations, No. 26, (Spring1989),7-24.

2.Stree Shakthi Sanghatana, ‘WeWere Making History…’: Life Sto-ries of Women in the TelanganaPeoples’Struggle, (Delhi: Kali forWomen,1989),pp.19-44;275-281.

3.Shahid Amin, Event, Metaphor,Memory: Chauri Chaura, 1922-1992, (Delhi: Oxford UniversityPress,1995),117-200;227-244.


20 October 2013

Session Three: Violence, Trauma and the Act of Recall:P K Datta (Department of PoliticalScience,DelhiUniversity):1.Luisa Passerini, ‘A Memory for

Women’s History: Problems ofMethodandInterpretation’,SocialScienceHistory,Vol.16,No.4(Win-ter,1992),pp.669-692.

2.LuisaPasserini,‘Memory’,HistoryWorkshop, No. 15 (Spring, 1983),pp.195-196.

3.Veena Das, “Composition of thePersonal Voice: Violence and Mi-gration” Studies in History, 7.1,(n.s.1991)pp.65-77.


2nd TRG Workshop, JNU, Delhi, 10-11 December 2013

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Session Four: Techniques of Oral History: NeeladriBhattacharya(JNU):1.JanVansina,OralHistoryasTradi-

tion, (Madison: University of Wis-consinPress,1995),pp.3-32;187-201;205-207;225-227..

2.PaulThompson “Believe it ornot:RethinkingtheHistoricalInterpre-tation of Memory” Memory andhistory: Essays on Recalling andinterpretingexperience(1994),pp.1-16

3.RickHalpern“OralHistoryandLa-borHistory:AHistoriographicAs-sessmentafterTwenty-Fiveyears”The Journal of American History,Vol85,No2,(Sep.1998),pp.596-610.

4.James Clifford “On Ethnograph-ic Authority” Representations(Spring1983)pp.118-246.


Summing Up:JanakiNair andNeeladriBhattacha-rya

10 – 14 December 2013: TRG Internal Workshop, Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, AIIS Seminar Room and Centre for the Study of Developing Soci-eties, Delhi

Tuesday, 10 December 2013

Introductoryremarks

Preeti: Schooling for Women: SomethemesofDiscussiononTheUnitedProvinces(1854-1930)Arun Kumar: ‘Schooling’ (?) themfor Manual Labour: Labour and La-bouring class in late Colonial Indai(1880s-1920s)Divya Kannan: Education for work:the Basel Mission in late 19th andearly20thCenturyMalabarMaliniGhose:WhatExclusionLeavesOut:the“Life-Worlds”ofEducationalPolicyMakinginContemporaryIndia

Wednesday, 11 December 2013

LeaGriebl:AlternativeEducationfortheRuralPoor:EmpowermentversusOppression Development throughEducation!? An Ethnography of Ed-ucationandSocialMobility inRuralIndiaKaustubh Mani Sengupta: RefugeeSettlementandtheRoleofEducationinCalcutta,1947-1967Sunandan K.N: Inhabiting TwoWorlds:DalitsandSchoolEducationinKeralamSumeet Mhaskar: Exploring Educa-tionalAttainmentinaPost-IndustrialCity:ACaseStudyofWorkingClassYouthsinMumbai

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Thursday, 12 December 2013

TRG PIs’ meeting and Fellows’ Dis-cussion,AIISSeminarRoomandTRGOffice,DefenceColony

Friday, 13 December 2013

TRG Supervisors’/ Mentors’ Meet-ings(TRGOffice,DefenceColony)

MeetingofSupervisorsandMentorstodiscussprogressofPhDandpost-doctoralresearchprojects

MeetingofSupervisorsandMentorswithPhDandpostdoctoralfellowstodiscussindividualresearchprojects

Saturday, 14 December 2013

Review workshop with contributorsof commissioned papers on PovertyandEducation(CSDS)

PoonamBatra(MaulanaAzadCentreforElementaryandSocialEducation,Central Institute of Education, Uni-versityofDelhi):QualityofEducationand thePoor:Constraints onLearn-ing

Farida Khan (Department of Educa-tionalStudiesatJamiaMiliaIslamia):Teaching children of the Poor: theimplicationsofclassroompedagogiesManabi Majumdar (Centre for Stud-iesinSocialSciences,Calcutta):TheShadow Education System and NewClassDivisionsinEducationNandiniManjrekar(CentreforStud-iesinSociologyofEducation,SchoolofSocialScience,TataInstituteofSo-cialSciences,Mumbai):Poverty,Con-

flictandGirls’Education:ReflectionsfromGujaratARVasavi(NehruMemorialMuseumand Library, New Delhi): ‘Govern-mentBrahmin’:Caste, theEducatedUnemployed, and the ReproductionofInequalities

Picture 1

Talking TRG: lunch break, workshop at CSDS Delhi, 14 December 2013

Picture 2

Exchanging ideas over lunch: 2nd TRG Workshop, JNU, Delhi, 10-11 December 2013

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B. Other Events

28-30 December 2013: Report on TRG Participa-tion in the Annual Confer-ence of the Comparative Education Society of India, Kolkata, December 28 – 30, 2013 (Sunandan K N)

The themeof thisyear’sconferenceof CESI was “Education, Diversityand Democracy.” In the conferencethere was a separate session underthetitle‘EducationandPoverty’sub-ject experts and contributors to theWorking Papers Series of the TRGpresentedtheirwork.Inadditiontothis, TRG postdoctoral and doctoralfellows presented their papers onvariouspanels.

The special panel on Education andPoverty was chaired by ProfessorAndreasGestrich,Director,GHIL. Inthispanelthefollowingpaperswerepresented

1.Poonam Batra: “Quality of Educa-tion and the Poor: Constraints onLearning”

2.FaridaKhan:“TeachingChildrenofthePoor:TheImplicationsofClass-roomPedagogies”

3.NandiniManjrekar:“Poverty,Con-flict and Educational Marginalisa-tion::ReflectionsfromGujarat“

4.Manabi Majumdar: “The ShadowEducation System and New ClassDivisionsinEducation”

The panel was attended with greatenthusiasmandtherewasanactiveand constructive discussion sessionafter the presentation. The majorconcern that emerged from the dis-cussion was about the question ofmarginalizationofvarioussectionsofsocietyfromaccesstoeducation.Theaudienceraisedquestionsregardingthe gendered nature of priorities inschooleducation,theproblemofgov-ernment support for schools attend-ed by poor students, and the prob-lemsofacurriculumwhichdoesnotconsiderthediversityofthestudentcommunity.

TRGdoctoralfellowPreetipresentedapaperinthepanel“Women’sEdu-cationandDemographicTransition.”The session was chaired by Dr. Pa-rimala Rao from Jawaharlal NehruUniversity, New Delhi. Her paper,“Moralizing’ Women: Education inthe United Provinces (1854-1930)”,investigated the question of ‘moraleducation’ and gender differentia-tion of morality sought by the colo-nial state and local people througheducation and literature on educa-tionproduced in that period. In thediscussion session questions wereraisedregarding thedifferent formsofmoralcodesfordifferentsectionsofwomen,suchasthosefromupperorlowercastesandMuslimwomen.

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General Report 2013

ArunKumar,alsoaTRGdoctoralfel-low, presented a paper in the panel“EducationandSocialReproduction.”ThepanelwaschairedbyDr.ArshadAlamofJawaharlalNehruUniversity.His paper, “Histories of Miscalcula-tionandthePoliticsof thePossible:The Reproduction and Productionof Subjects in Colonial IndustrialSchools,” investigated the conductof industrial schools in the colonialperiod. Thepaper analyzed theob-jectives of the colonial officers andmissionaries in providing technicaleducation for the poor sections ofsocietyandhowthepoorusedtheseschoolsintheirownways.Theques-tionsinthediscussionsessionrelat-edmainly to themoralandculturalideasofcolonialistsandmissionariesthatdeterminedthenatureofcoloni-aleducationpolicies.Postdoctoral Fellow Kaustubh ManiSengupta presented a paper in thepanel“TheEducationofChildren inDifficult Conditions.” The sessionwaschairedbyDr.ShireenMiller,Di-rectorAdvocacy,SavetheChildren.Hispaper,“OfCamps,Colonies,andSchools: Refugee Education in WestBengal”, explored the role of edu-cationandtheschool inthe livesofrefugeeswhosettledinWestBengalafterthepartitionofIndiain1947.

SunandanKN,postdoctoralfellowofTRG,presentedapaperinthepanelon “Caste, Gender and Sexuality inEducation.”Thesessionwaschairedby Dr. Nandini Manjrekar of TISSMumbai. His paper, titled “CriticalMind and Labouring Body: Casteand Education Reforms in Kerala”,analyzed the notion of mental andmanual labour in the discourses oneducationreforminKeralain1990s.Thepaperdiscussedtheissueofdi-chotomousconceptualizationofbodyandmind,andmentalandmanualla-bourinthereformdebateandarguedthat exclusions and dominations inthefieldof education shouldbeun-derstoodnotonlyintheinstitutionaldomainsbutattheleveloftheepiste-mologicaldomainaswell.Themainquestionsraisedwereabouttheroleof caste in theexclusionaryprocessand thenewways inwhichcaste ispracticedinschools.

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4. People

Principal InvestigatorsRaviAhuja CeMIS,GöttingenSaradaBalagopalan CSDS,DelhiNeeladriBhattacharya JNU,DelhiAndreasGestrich Director,GHIL,LondonValeskaHuber GHIL,LondonSunilKhilnani King’sIndiaInstitute,King’sCollege,LondonJanakiNair JNU,DelhiGeethaNambissan JNU,DelhiJahnaviPhalkey King’sIndiaInstitute,LondonIndraSengupta AcademicCoordinator,GHIL,LondonSilkeStrickrodt GHIL,LondonRupaViswanath CeMIS;Göttingen

Post-Doc FellowsSunandanKizhakkeNedumpally Post-DocFellow,DelhiSumeetMhaskar Post-DocFellow,CeMIS,GöttingenKaustubhManiSengupta Post-DocFellow,DelhiJanaTschurenev Post-DocFellow,CeMIS,Göttingen

PhD FellowsMaliniGhose PhDFellow,CeMIS,GöttingenLeaGriebl PhDFellow,CeMIS,GöttingenDivyaKannan PhDFellow,DelhiArunKumar PhDFellow,CeMIS,GöttingenPreeti PhDFellow,Delhi

SupportIndraSengupta AcademicCoordinatorSueEvans AdminSupport,LondonRohanSeth AdminSupport,DelhiSukantiEkka AdminSupport,London

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2014

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Annual Report 2013 - Universität Göttingen

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