Pedagogy, Culture & Society Vol. 14, No. 2, July 2006, pp. 189–220 ISSN 1468-1366 (print)/ISSN 1747-5104 (online)/06/020189–32 © 2006 Pedagogy, Culture & Society DOI: 10.1080/14681360600738343 ‘The power of mantras’: postcoloniality, education and development Prem Poddar* Aarhus Universitet, Denmark Taylor and Francis Ltd RPCS_A_173797.sgm 10.1080/14681360600738343 Pedagogy, Culture & Society 1468-1366 (print)/1747-5104 (online) Original Article 2006 Taylor & Francis 14 2 000000July 2006 PremPoddar engpp@hum.au.dk The discourse of development or modernization and of ‘national integration’ or ‘nation-building’ in India is inseparable from issues surrounding education and culture and their incorporation in definitions forged during colonialism. In this article I look primarily at the Kothari Commission Report (KCR) of 1964–66 and the New Policy on Education (NPE) proposals of 1986. These two documents, between them, chart the entire discursive territory of projected developments in post- colonial India. Ambitious in conception, they are blueprints for the transformation of a society. I focus on the relation between the NPE and KCR as evidence of policy and education in India, and attempt to relate them to previous proposals by Gandhi and others and to my own theoretical preoccupations, particularly those regarding discourse and counter-players. Introduction There are two human inventions which may be considered more difficult than any others … the art of government, and the art of education; and people still contend as to their meaning. (Kant, 1960, p. 12) The verbal slippage … between the ‘literate’ in the sense of being able to read adequately, and ‘literate’ in the sense of being well-read, well-educated, and, in that sense ‘cultured’— is crucial to the shimmering ambiguity of the term and concept of ‘cultural literacy’. (Smith, 1990, p. 75) The verbal slippage from ‘literacy’ to ‘literary’ noted above is a conflation that marks the discursive achievement of English studies as a discipline which bore the burden of secular as well as religious culture in colonial India. The binaries ‘literate/illiterate’ and ‘literate/literary’ marked the extremities which defined the space for the develop- ment of modern education in India. English literary education is a signifier in present- day India, not just of English literature, but of English-medium education as well as a Westernized matrix of education and culture. Similarly, missionary endeavour in * Institute of Language, Literature and Culture, Nobelparken, Aarhus Universitet, Aarhus 8000 C, Denmark. Email: engpp@hum.au.dk