ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some aspects of the role of education in social conflicts in countries in transition. Privatisation is an aspect of the hard-fought field of education in India which intensify the conflicts. Because of the malfunctioning of governmental schooling, privatisation is on the run, and this is true not only for the cities, but also in the poor rural districts. With the most unique phenomenon of the Brahmins as the intellectual elite heading the caste system, education was connected to hierarchy since ages. India is a striking example for the analysis of social tensions resulting out of inequality in the access to and success in education. The illiteracy rate is 34 per cent in a country where the effort to develop nuclear weapons has long heavily influenced the research agenda and the scientific system. Whereas the excellent IITs Indian Institutes of Technology are best known in the whole world and Indian researchers are ahead in the area of biotechnology.
