In Shivani Nag, Hridyakant Dewan, Manoj Kumar (Ed). The idea, work and identity of teachers [Adhyapan Karm, Adhypak ki chavi va asmita]. New Delhi: Vani Prakshan. Pp 123-144, 2021
This article analyses images of children painted on the government school gates. The images depic... more This article analyses images of children painted on the government school gates. The images depict line drawings of children wearing school uniform entering the school. Assumptions about the 'ideal child' are laid bare in these paintings, revealed in the quotidian act of children moving into the school and out at the end of the school day. Examination of these images and focused interactions with school teachers permits a peep into the inner workings of beliefs about children and the nature of childhood. The child is conceived at the nexus of various spheres of development-family, society and nation. How the image of the school child plays out in each of these spheres is discussed, with a concerted focus on social class. These depictions of well-groomed, fair-skinned girls carrying water bottles to school are incongruous with the reality of children's lives. The paper deploys the concepts of 'politics of aesthetics' (Rancière, 2009) and 'governmentality' (Foucault, 1991) to analyse the sensibilities circulating in these images, revealing ways in which the naturalization of innocence and technologies of governmentality circulate within the consciousness of the school. The necessity of opening up the aesthetics implicit in the figure of school child to open up the cultural politics of childhood and its circulation among the social actors in the context of the government school is discussed. How children are seen, understood and imagined in our popular consciousness is closely linked to how we interact, teach and govern them.
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Papers by Nidhi gulati
The research discussed in this chapter reveals how varied notions of childhood in India have co-existed over different periods of time. An important leitmotif that emerges from research is the persistence of the ‘child as Krishna’, where the child embodies aspects of the divine. Researches have highlighted that young children are seen as imbued with purity and innocence.
Post-colonial theorists have attempted to draw a homology between childhood and the state of being colonized, where the child is construed as immature, savage and native. Education in the colony, marked by English language and rationalist ideologies served as a unifying thread, bringing colonised subjects across the country closer.
Research reveals that children across several regions continue to participate in economically productive work. The clear dissociation of children from the world of work has not unfolded as the state intended it. There are probing questions about what constitutes an ‘ideal’ childhood and should schooling and work be always posed antithetical to each other especially in developing societies. Particularly important are questions about how poverty impacts childhood, the implications of development for childhood, issues of power and hegemony and children’s voice.
The research discussed in this chapter reveals how varied notions of childhood in India have co-existed over different periods of time. An important leitmotif that emerges from research is the persistence of the ‘child as Krishna’, where the child embodies aspects of the divine. Researches have highlighted that young children are seen as imbued with purity and innocence.
Post-colonial theorists have attempted to draw a homology between childhood and the state of being colonized, where the child is construed as immature, savage and native. Education in the colony, marked by English language and rationalist ideologies served as a unifying thread, bringing colonised subjects across the country closer.
Research reveals that children across several regions continue to participate in economically productive work. The clear dissociation of children from the world of work has not unfolded as the state intended it. There are probing questions about what constitutes an ‘ideal’ childhood and should schooling and work be always posed antithetical to each other especially in developing societies. Particularly important are questions about how poverty impacts childhood, the implications of development for childhood, issues of power and hegemony and children’s voice.