Consequences of Colonialism for Indian Education and Society

Consequences of colonialism for Indian education and society

The debate about the positive versus negative impacts of British colonial rule in India is a significant one, sympathisers and apologists like to claim that the Indian people received plenty of benefits as a result of colonisation, therefor mitigating the atrocities committed against the them for over 200 years. Countless Indigenous sub-cultures within the Indian sub-continent were cannibalised by the British, combined into a hybrid and called unity. Selected aspects of British culture were then superimposed over Indigenous ideas and traditions. Western impacts on Indian education systems also result in the continuation of this cycle, and the social impacts as a result of that extended trauma are extreme.

Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2013 pp.10-15) talks about ‘coloniality;’ the ongoing effects on communities long after colonialism has ended. Their article specifically talks about Africia, but I think the same principles are extremely useful when examining India as well. Decoloniality involves examining who is creating the knowledge of a nation, and the ‘dismantling of relations of power and conceptions of knowledge’ (pp. 14) that still remain as a result of British rule. One of the best steps towar