Paper short abstract:

The paper shows how a reputed middle class school in a South Indian city conveys highly contradictory ideas about the meaning of being a modern Indian citizen in the global era

Paper long abstract:

Focusing on a middle class school in metropolitan Ernakulam, South India, this paper unravels the work of one of the city's dominant educational projects. It is an attempt to investigate how the institution's rhetoric, practices, and legacy, reworked through India's integration into the global economy, converge into the 'ideal' Indian citizen for a global era they aim to produce. Specific focus is on the schools' self-representational project, concentrating on its Annual Day celebration as a special instance in which the school displays its status and gives concrete expression to their vision on the relationship between the school's educational project, India, and the modern world. With respect to the values and skills the school tries to instil in youth, it is argued that far from conveying a coherent message they constitute a site where contradictory ideas about the meaning of being a modern Indian citizen are played out. The paper shows how the school's messages oscillate between encouraging individual competitiveness while valorising a reworked nationalist consciousness, or between advancing 'international' culture while urging for a more entrenched notion of 'tradition', with a high caste morality touch.