Abstract

This article is a study of the impact of liberalism and neoliberalism on educational policy in India. The focus is on two waves of colonial enterprise into India. The first phase occurred in the nineteenth century and was ideologically fueled by post-Enlightenment liberalism. At this time the British conspicuously and proactively colonized India and justified this colonial project on liberal, Eurocentric grounds. In this context, I examine the impact of liberalism and utilitarianism on education policy and argue that modern, secular education was uniquely an outcome of colonial ideology in India. In the second section of the article, following post-colonial and critical theorists of education, I argue that global neoliberalism is a continuation of colonialism, albeit in different form, and that this new form of global colonization is reversing educational commitment and policy in India from secular public education to privatized education and school choice in the service of global neoliberal interests.