Reframing Idea of Social Justice and Capability Approach in Indian Higher Education

Social Justice in higher education is widely debated in academic discourses across the globe and India. The current study seeks to understand the social justice policy in Indian higher education beyond the idea of recognition, distribution, and representation to freedom aspects. The study uses the capability approach (CA) developed by Amartya Sen and Nussbaum as a theoretical framework to understand what young students are able to be and to do and what limits young students’ beings and doings in higher education in understanding the agency and well-being of students. The study uses the critical ethnography method in the field of higher education in Bihar, India. The study reveals that the policy of positive discrimination has made public higher education accessible to students from underrepresented groups in Bihar. The study further finds that despite fractured classes and teaching learnings in higher education student find their ways of doing and being in higher education. Self-formation in higher education among Dalit and Mahadalit students enables them to navigate higher education.