ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book discusses the ongoing reform strategies of the government of the day, which is deepening the crisis in higher education. It introduces a political act of reading freedom through narratives. The book explores the possibilities of associational freedom students and students’ bodies embody in the private aided educational institutions in the state of Kerala. It demonstrates how the ideologies of free-market have forced a restructuring of the norms and values which are necessary conditions for shaping the public sphere. The book summarises certain key policy concerns about education to imagine an inclusive knowledge society in India. It outlines the indispensability of effective mediation of education between different systems and agencies as key constituencies of the public sphere to create the discursive spaces of democracy and social justice in education.
