ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses how the meanings of the term ‘rural’ have been shaped by the process of modernization and the history of the idea of modernity. The focus is on India, but a larger context is invoked and parallels are drawn with the social histories of other regions of the world. The main objective is to situate education for modernity in the context of a society whose modernization began under colonial conditions. The assumption is that education – a key component of the modernization of a largely rural society – has played a major role in shaping the meanings of the term ‘rural’ itself. Colonial rule supplied the conditions for the emergence of a particular structure of relationships between the village and the town, and education contributed to the dichotomization of the two. The chapter is divided into three parts. The first discusses the relationship between the terms ‘rural’ and ‘urban’ by proposing a grammatical grid. A paradox is identified in the role of education in promoting modernity even while the pedagogic core of modernism in education itself bears a rural character. Second, the contribution of education to maintaining this rural–urban grid is examined. The third and final part narrates recent trends in the systemic growth of education and its relationship with nation-building. How has this relationship affected the village, both as a concept and in reality? This question is discussed in the wider context of citizenship and nationalism.
