Elements of the Native: Radical Pedagogy and Recovery from Amnesia

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to construct elements of a native pedagogy from the practices, truths, and relations buried under the onslaught of colonial modernity, a vicious combine that has mostly left the erstwhile colonized nations like India in denial of their own truths, native understandings, and deeper insights into life and purpose. In particular, the educational practices and values coming out of colonial modernity have been culturally catastrophic for children of ordinary folk who have had to deal with the tidal wave of monetary and market relations on the one hand, and a meaningless and alienating education on the other. The paper argues that it is more important now than ever to reengage with native wisdom to craft a radical curriculum that cuts through the miasma and cultural deceit handed out as education to hapless children.