Book Review: Anandita Mukhopadhyay, Children’s Games Adults Gambit: From Vidyasagar to Satyajit Ray

Abstract

be it now or earlier, which decides what knowledge is worth transmitting. The author does not mince words when describing the current state of Indian politics and its effects on education, namely the dominance of what he calls Hindu nationalist historiography. In Ten Lectures, the writer has demonstrated his ability to weave together philosophy with practice. The style is conversational, liberally interspersed with accessible examples. However, there is a tendency towards narrating anecdotes, a strategy that engages listeners during lectures but when used too often is distracting for readers. Even with these drawbacks, students of sociology who are interested in education and those in the field of education who wish to question the norm will find it useful. The book was written about two years ago and in the course of these two years, several of the issues raised in the book such as religious nationalism or gap between skill and liberal education have become starker. Education is often based on promoting conformity, consensus and avoiding conflict. In its extreme form today, it has reached a point where any sort of questioning is labelled ‘anti-national’, where space is not given to repressed sections. The book warns that this attitude is not exclusive to the dominant ideology today, it is a trap in which other ideologies have fallen before and continue to fall; we need to ask ourselves why it is so if we want to move towards an enlightened society.