Chitta Ranjan Das is among the world’s great educationists who have offered alternative models of learning that are particularly suited for marginaslised sections of society, for whom top-down models give a rigid, inherently unequal simulacrum of education. For children of ST communities, we need to start by recognising the cultural racism implicit in the mainstream models. For example, India’s policy documents on tribal education have repeatedly recognised the importance of tribal languages and of bringing local culture—including agriclture/food production—into these children’s learning experience. Yet in practice, tribal languages are still banned from many schools, while others get funding for multilingual education that brings these languages in only tokenistically rather than as a medium of teaching and discussion. The revival of tribal languages in New Zealand, Ecuador, North America and elsewhere presents evolving models of how to complement models in India to transform tribal education into a far more positive experience, reflecting ST communities’ own ideas and influence.