Decolonisation in language education : addressing the question of heterogeneity in West Bengal and Kerala in the 1990s

Abstract

The educational policies put forth by the British colonial empire led to a homogenisation of language education policy in India to the detriment of the language diversity or heterogeneity that existed before British colonisation. The study aims to analyse how postcolonial policies for language education reform addressed the heterogeneity question through a comparison of the states of Kerala and West Bengal with a focus on the decade of the 1990s when India experienced intense economic, technological and educational globalisation after its economy was liberalised (Kumar 2014). In particular, the study will critically survey how these policies attempt to preserve the heterogeneity of language in primary-level school education systems, including the National Education Policy (2020). We draw on government documents, reports, and other archival records to inform and support the analysis. Our findings reveal the limited effectiveness of postcolonial initiatives in reinstating the spirit of plurality and multilingualism in primary education.