At the Crossroads of the West and the East: A Philosophical Understanding of Education in Colonial India

This article analyzes the philosophical understanding of the problems of education in colonial India. During this period, India was deeply influenced by the Western education system, and the patterns introduced by the metropolis were a direct consequence of its political influence. Intellectuals comprehending the problems of education were educated in the framework of the system created by the British. Therefore, the philosophical problems of education were discussed around the attitude to the West and the Western education system as a whole. Initially, Indian intellectuals treated the European education system positively. Subsequently, within the framework of Indian intellectual thought, criticism of the British education system was developed. Indian intellectuals pointed to the problem of the lack of demand for Indians who received Western education and their lack of prospects for development. Swami Vi-vekananda criticized the content of the spread of education, representing the history and culture of India not in the best light. In his opinion, it was necessary to look at the history of India with its own, not British, eyes. Subsequently, the requirement to establish its own education system became part of the Swadeshi political movement, which involved a boycott of schools and universities established by the British authorities. Rabindranath Tagore criticized Western education for the overly clear regulation of the process and for its isolation from real life. The concept of national education was actively developed by the participants of the national liberation movement. Tilak insisted on increasing the religious component in education and reducing the share of learning foreign languages. He pointed out that the true national liberation is impossible without the creation of its own system of education, involving a combination of Western forms and Indian content. As a result, India has developed not only its own philosophy of education, but also a clear idea that without a national education system there can be no true independence. The authors trace the evolution of how thinkers gradually go form the problem of assessing the Western system of education to the concept of "national education", involving the synthesis of both their own and European educational traditions.

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