Speaker: India's colonial legacy

While history has seen many examples of coercion, in several 19th century colonies, education systems were often the most effective way to ensure conformity. That is the philosophy of Nita Kumar from the Centre for Studies in Social Science in Calcutta, India, who spoke last Wednesday about "Learning from Schools: Education and History in South Asia." Hers was the first in a series of public lectures presented in last week's four-day South Asia Forum: Rethinking the Borders of South Asia. Sponsored by Penn's South Asia Center, the forum, which took place from October 13 to October 16, was open to the public but attended principally by Penn students and faculty. Kumar's lecture focused on trends in education in the Indian region of Banarus during the 19th century. She discussed three different Indian social classes -- the intelligentsia, the merchants and the artisans -- and their collective failure to reconcile their culture with the educational standards that were imposed upon them under colonial rule. A main topic of Kumar's discourse was that the physical structure of the classroom and a rigid Western-based curriculum led to a society in which questioning of the status quo was discouraged. The physical setup of classrooms -- which were basically identically arranged from school to school -- did not allow for discussion and reinforced the idea that authorities could not be challenged. "This provides the eloquent case that power and politics were not the only monopolies of colonialism," Kumar said. "[Education] was as powerful and exclusive as any form of colonial politics." Kumar encouraged students in American universities to learn from India's legacy and reflect upon learning that occurs beyond the classroom. "Despite 100 years of modern education in India, understand that certain kinds of learning occur outside the schools," she said. "Learning about one's culture does not need to be directly taught, but is very important." Kumar's audience, while skeptical of some of the particulars of her arguments, were deeply interested in the ramifications of her studies. All lectures in the forum were held in the History Department Lounge at 3401 Walnut Street. Friday's presentations included "Making Place in Medieval India," "Rethinking Mughal India: Babur and Humayan's Hindustan," "History Out of Bounds: South Asian Regions 1700-1850" and "Bounded Globalization: Restructuring the Indian Middle Class," and were followed by lunch, discussion and dinner.