Ancient India and Inclusive Education

Abstract

Ancient India thus remains a flexible and still fully unexplored terrain that cannot be simplistically branded as rigid and casteist or apathetic to women when it comes to equality in education and inclusion in society. Again various evidence shows that it would be wrong to assume that ancient Indic traditions were outright supporter of women’s education and holistic inclusion. The culture in ancient India and the evolving trends were volatile and chequered and calls for more intensive and extensive studies. This paper aims at exploring the ambiguous developments related to the education of the so called lower castes and how the age old theory of a rigid caste system and rigid norms against inclusion of women in India, that gave rise to social exclusion is practically not absolute and remains a grey zone to be brought under the scanner. In fact this paper attempts to bring to the forefront the instances that reveal that ancient India was more inclusive in philosophy and practice than its western counterparts.