The Necessity for a Decolonization of the Mind

The decolonization of minds requires that the course content and curricula in Indian educational institutions must be sui generis and not copied from institutions in advanced countries. The chapter notes that an independent educational trajectory cannot be achieved if education is left largely to the private sector to be run as a business. Privatization necessarily entails a commodification of education which not only robs it of its grandeur but also excludes large numbers of people from its ambit and fails in the basic task of decolonizing minds. Privatization of education however has been the tendency at least for the last three decades, ever since the introduction of a neo-liberal economic regime in India, a tendency that is now being carried forward by the New Education Policy. The argument, often advanced, that the government lacks the resources for establishing a predominantly-public education system, lacks substance; in fact just two taxes imposed on the top 1% of the population will be adequate for financing not only free public education but also a set of other fundamental economic rights, including the right to free universal healthcare.