ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the creation of and implications of the counter-school resistances amongst both elite and non-elite girls in India—the different ways in which, given the structure of their schooling experience, the girls try to fight against the oppressive elements or to adapt to them. Responses to situations in a given society depend greatly on both the cultural and economic organisations of that society. Individual options are determined by one’s position within the particular configuration of class and patriarchal structures at each point in history. The school system in India is a perfect site for the playing out of the tension between the old and new forces and between the contradictions that arise between the different roles allotted to women. By the end of the nineteenth century, there was a split in the education system, with one set of girls being trained with renewed fervour to participate in the national struggle for independence—and a smaller set still emulating the British.
