Articles by Krishna Kumar

The consensus against the farmers’ struggle grants them the space to have doubts and apprehensions, but no civic or intellectual agency to seriously question the legitimacy and reliability of the vision of the future embedded in the new laws.

A significant divergence characterises girls’ socialisation at home and at school, on the one hand, and their intellectual development through education, on the other. Although both home and school are agencies of socialisation, the two do not converge in the case of girls. This article analyses data from several different domains of girls’ lives ranging in ages from five to 18 years.

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 is a long way off from becoming a social reality due to the reluctance to enforce many of its provisions. What has suffered the most is the autonomy and dignity of teachers, which form the core of this law’s approach.

The issue of “girlhood” rather than “girls” is tackled in an attempt to answer the question “What is education?” and the necessity for autonomy in education is considered. The Indian state’s psychological split between a tyrannical need for control and a benevolence towards its citizens is examined, which leads to an explanation of the diffi culty the state faces in engaging with the culture of girlhood. Finally, the hardships that girls experience with regard to education today are outlined.

The Vyapam scam of Madhya Pradesh is not the familiar story of exam cheating. It is about the mutation of exam cheating into a service industry facilitated by the State. Understanding it requires a look at the political economy of a hollowed-out system of education. The scam found a congenial climate in the sociopolitical reality of Madhya Pradesh.