Other India Bookstore

Big business has taken over higher education by selling the false impression that technology could very well serve education. In the process, education has been turned into a commodity for commercial transactions.

The author, who runs a unique school outside the formal education system, presents her challenging and innovative ideas on educational issues.

A large group of educationists from around the world write critical pieces (and huge brickbats) on the suggestion of John Daniel that the McDonalds burger model should be a model for education as well. John Daniel is the Asst. Director General for Education at UNESCO. Probably never had anything better to eat than burgers.

This seminal work is once again available. Essential reading for educationists, teacher, parents and just about anybody concerned about children.

The classic tale of an ideal school in Tokyo during World War II that combined learning with fun, freedom and love.

Everything significant that Gandhiji said about education is here in this collection of his writings on the subject. Kumarappa has done a real service to the public by this selection.

A special issue of Vimukt Shiksha which discusses how we can delink learning and schooling from the agenda of imperialism.

The Western rationalist, materialist, modernist outlook is reflected in the academic regime of “White Studies”, American education today. Why is the rest of the world adopting these narrow intellectual assumptions when they have their own locally relevant and humanely intellectual traditions?

John Holts priceless essays on the needs and rights of children and how these have been compromised, undermined and sabotaged by the rhetoric of childhood.

If you consider that what they are saying is true, at least you can take adequate steps to contain the damage.

Multiversity is a new project of the Other India Bookstore. The flagship book, Multiversity, which contains all you need to know about the project, is now available from OIB. But you can also subscribe to Kamiriithu (look elsewhere in this catalogue), the peppery newsletter on learning that comes out occasionally from the Press. Multiversity (the book) contains the original proposals seeking intellectual independence from “white studies” regimes, vision statement, the full transcripts of the original Penang meeting that launched the project, and a fairly detailed introduction to what is presently being undertaken under the project. The first major international conference on “redesign of social science curricula” took place in Penang in November 2004. Its objective: “ghost-busting”, eliminating the Eurocentric dominance still playing havoc with our social studies programmes in our universities. The India segment of Multiversity is now preparing for publication a “Learning Sourcebook” that brings together major, significant, pioneering alternatives to conventional schooling and education systems. Multiversity is proposing to organise a major international conference on “Transcending Macaulay and Factory Schooling” sometime in November 2005. We are looking for young and energetic people who can work on some of these ideas at our Goa office. So if you are excited by what you read and would like to work on a meaningful project, get in touch with us through Other India Bookstore. You don’t even need to come and work in Goa really, since the internet makes it possible for you to join and collaborate on project themes wherever you are on the planet. But if you still wish to relocate here for a while, welcome. But be prepared to work hard.

The remarkable story of Gandhis Nai Taleem (basic education) experiments, written extremely well, crystal clear, and with passion. The account is personal and based on first-hand experience, hence its total freshness.

Revised and enlarged edition of the Montessori method.

Dr Montessoris revolutionary method of education began early this century. In this classic work she expounds her conviction that in the child there are laws of growth in character and disposition as marked as those in his/her physical life.

This document has much wisdom and many practical insights into how we can change our education system in order to stimulate fresh thinking and practice in India. Beautifully drafted. Worth reading since it comes from an unconventional source and not the usual government gasbags.

Another wise and significant document on the need to transform the present education system.

A pioneering study on the importance of art as a foundation for the education of the individual. The book also takes a detailed look at the various stages of its expression in a child, its importance in shaping the individuals thinking and cognitive faculty, the role of teachers and parents and most importantly its role in an anxiety-ridden society.

A study of Gandhi’s basic education system of ideas. The title of the study indicates a dissatisfaction on the part of its author with much of the material that has so far been written on the subject.

This ‘interrogation’ of literacy and its claims provides for the first time a clear glimpse into its underside, darkside and side-effects.

An essay on why we must disestablish School – extracted from the book Deschooling Society by the celebrated thinker and philosopher. Compulsory reading for anyone having anything to do with modern education.

Devi Prasad is a freedom fighter, a Gandhian and artist and a craftsman. He graduated from Rabindranath Tagore’s school in Santiniketan. In this book he writes on the educational insights of Tagore and Gandhi and argues why Art Education should be the core of the curriculum process.

Taleemnet, a branch of Multiversity, introduces twelve educational pioneers in India, who have been working in education in their own mothertongue, using their own (often meagre) resources and endowments. Their insights into education have largely remained unavailable to the world at large, simply because of the restrictions of language. This book will be useful to all those interested in alternative education.

Taleemnet and Abhiyatki, two organisations concerned with alternative education, invited path-breaking educators working with learning communities to a four day gathering in Goa in 2005. The group eventually included 60 people from all over India, including three from Pakistan and one each from Malaysia, England and /France. This book reports on that meeting. It has brief biographies of the participants, their views on different aspects of education, interviews with some of them and of course snippets of wisdom. All in a very easy-to-read format.

A personal reflection by an outstanding educationalist.

Reprinted by Eklavya in the interests of putting fun and learning back into the child’s education instead of the dreary boredam that today’s schools offer, Summerhill, first published in 1959 is as relevant today as it was half a century ago. Summerhill, is a school where children are not compelled to go to class and can stay away from lessons for years if they want to. And yet the students in the school learn. This experiment was started by Alexander Neill, an Englishman, in 1921 and continues to run under a children’s government where the “bosses” are the children themselves. A must-read for all those interested in education and also for those who have children. Low priced.

A collection of essays by comrade S.N., an activist writer well-versed with the different shades of the communist movement in India.

How do you occupy young children and at the same time inculcate in them ecologically sound values and skills? Sending them to school was not the answer as this Japanese housewife, living in India with her Indian husband and their two small children, soon discovered. Instead she initiated ecological activities within the home, including setting up a small garden, making clay jewellery and other eco-crafts such as book-making, soap making, solar cooker etc. Several ideas came from the children themselves. With drawings and photographs to illustrate the text, this book is not only a delightful read but will also be useful for educationists who can creatively employ these ideas to enliven learning experiences in schools.

The results of a study carried out to find out the expectations and perceptions of people regarding schooling, in the Tehri- Garhwal areas of Uttarakhand.

The results of a study carried out to find out the expectations and perceptions of people regarding schooling, in the Tehri- Garhwal areas of Uttarakhand.