Nearly one in every twelve humans is a young Indian for whom meaningful
education is of critical importance. A good education will not only help
our youth get jobs and build fulfilling careers, it will also lead to
the widening of our collective imagination and the shaping of the way we
think; for all these reasons it ought to be an important concern of our
time. Unfortunately, this is not the case. There is a lack of
infrastructure, adequate funding and genuine autonomy within educational
institutions, departments within those institutions, and individuals who
teach in those departments. And this is not all. There is also the
question of the nature of knowledge that is relevant to our rapidly
modernizing country that needs to be dealt with. If knowledge is the
core of education and if education lays the very foundation of a nation,
the author argues that it is of critical importance that the plight of
educational institutions and the need to generate knowledge appropriate
to India are addressed without any delay. Original and profound, this
book offers a clear picture of the mistakes that have been committed in
the past, confronts the present decline of knowledge and education in
the country and offers a vision for the future.