India is a remarkably diverse and pluralistic society. Prof Kalantzis’ observations on Assimilation and Exclusion urged me to think about this in the Indian context at the microlevel of school education, with respect to the notion of ‘caste’ which continues to cast its dark shadow on the lives of those at the receiving end of the institution, despite regulations/legislations that have long deemed it obsolete and illegal. In the relatively privileged urban private schools, caste differences do not necessarily figure as prominently as they otherwise might in the less privileged, state-sponsored, suburban/rural schools. It will be worthwhile to explore if and how this feeds into the implicit imagination of the modern Indian nation-state.

Having studied and worked at urban, private schools myself , I feel the principle of assimilation might be at work to a great extent in the former scenario if indeed the student community presents diversity in terms of caste. If there are students from an underprivileged/marginalized caste in the classroom, the specific caste identity doesn’t stand out in any significantly noticeable way given that the general norms, expectations and codes of conduct are by and large democratizing and uniform for all students. This is especially true of missionary schools where members of marginalized castes (some of whom might have changed their faith to deal with caste-based violence/exclusion) send their children to have access to quality education otherwise thought to be the prerogative of those from the privileged castes. Having attended a renowned missionary school where there were many children from the afore-mentioned background, I can say with some degree of conviction that there was a fair degree of democracy in the classroom where the respective caste-based (or even religious) identities of the students didn’t come into conflict with one another mainly because the students were expected to assimilate to a specific notion of community governed by certain general, overarching codes of conduct. Here, it is appropriate to also add the disclaimer that my observations are premised on my perceptions as a member of a privileged caste. It is possible that a student from an underprivileged casted might have experienced the democratizing, assimilatory imperatives of the school in a very different way.

However, given India’s population, geographical extent and multi-faceted diversity this personal experience can hardly be the benchmark for any generalized observations. The more peripheral the location of the school in relation to the urban centre, the more perhaps the likelihood of caste-based Exclusion than Assimilation. Also, in many of the privileged and elite urban private schools in metropolises like Delhi, Bangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata many of which which are frequently owned and run by commercial conglomerates, Exclusion might be at work in a subtle and quasi imperceptible manner in the way the school a priori excludes the possibility of having any caste-based diversity in the school community (not perhaps as a conscious act but the modalities of studying in these schools might be too elusive for those from underprivileged castes) even though the Indian government’s Reservation Act promoting affirmative action towards members of underprivileged castes requires all state schools to recruit a certain percentage of students from the latter. As an educator at one such elite school, I have till date not come across anything that resembles caste-based diversity in the student community. Here the implicit Exclusion of underprivileged/marginalized castes through a number of factors (like the fees) is concomitant upon Assimilation under expectations pertaining to social class and financial status.

We can therefore say that the principles of Exclusion and Assimilation are curiously intertwined in the specific micro-context of the Indian school system whereby one might start looking like the other outwardly while secretly upholding its own essence.