Choral singing was embraced by many missionaries as a means of attracting potential converts to Christianity. A principal choral singing method in 19th century Britain, Tonic Sol-fa, was introduced by missionaries and others to the Indian subcontinent where it was used as both a pedagogical method and a music notation system. Building on the…

Religious minority schools are seen to take on the task of transmitting the normative image of a community, its ideology and culture. Through pedagogy and daily routine practices, schools seek to shape students' ideas of a religion and ways in which it is to be performed. This paper, based on ethnography of a Sikh school in Delhi, explores such…

This article examines the historical backdrop to the involvement of teaching Sisters in convent schooling for girls in India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, since the late nineteenth century. It then explores how, as a consequence of a range of social changes, leadership in convent schools has changed in both countries, across the twentieth…

This article examines Muslim parents' private school choice, their understanding of public-private schooling and how they navigate the choice between fee-free public schools and fee-charging private schools. This article draws on qualitative data from open-ended, semi-structured interviews with 38 parents from Muslim-majority areas in Delhi,…

This article studies the relationship between the authorities of newly independent India and mission schools using the case of (and the perspective/sources from) the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in Chotanagpur (then South Bihar, now Jharkhand). These relationships were marked by much tension in the late 1940s and early 1950s. An abundance of…

Women missionaries who came to India with a superior Protestant religious imaginary were keen on critiquing Hindu cultural practices that created divergences and transfigurations. They blatantly proclaimed that the deep-rooted custom of women's "seclusion" was a stumbling block to education, evangelisation and modernisation. This study…

In formal learning spaces, students must navigate making meaning of both new knowledge and potentially new worldviews. In this qualitative grounded theory study, we examined how adult Buddhist monastic students learned about and described the origin of biodiversity in an introductory biology course. The study was conducted at a Tibetan settlement…

In the 21st century, discussions on the environment actively intersect with religious discourse, purposefully incorporating religious texts and spiritual perspectives to propose effective solutions for addressing the pressing global environmental crisis. Within this context, this study employs a narrative analysis approach, conducting fifteen…

This article highlights the vibrant role of the Muslim Anjumans in activating the educational revival in the colonial Punjab. The latter half of the 19th century, particularly the decade 1880- 1890, witnessed the birth of several Muslim Anjumans (societies) in the Punjab province. These were, in fact, a product of growing political consciousness…

As the British expanded their dominions in India, political and administrative needs made it imperative for them to acquire more information about their subjects. Hence, systematic and meticulous surveys began to be commissioned by the East India Company as it assumed charge of educating the natives. These surveys were an integral part of what…

The theological misappropriation of Christianity as a civilizing force occurs when individuals convert to Christianity due to deception that ignores the faith-based aspect of Christianity. The history of Western education in India illustrates the hidden curriculum that Christian missionaries employed to disrupt the Indian educational system. This…

A large amount of literature in this regard was produced by new institutional spaces like religious printing presses, caste associations and religious organizations that mushroomed significantly by early decades of twentieth century. The proliferation of Hindu religious printing and publishing in Hindi by presses like Gita Press of north India…

This study explores the system of education in the Tibetan settlement in Bylakuppe, Karnataka, in southern India. Two prominent monasteries in the settlement are Sera Mey and Sera Jey, each attached to a school. Sera Mey was particularly well suited for the study because of the comprehensiveness of its school (grades 1-12). My own focus of…

Based on a one-year longitudinal experimental study with 3,782 kindergarten school children across 15 countries, this article examines the association between prayer and happiness. Results show that the post-test scores on the faces scale were higher for the participant group who had taken the prayer lessons vis-à-vis the comparison group.…

A major historical shift is taking place in Tibetan Buddhism with the relocation of large numbers of monks from Tibet and the establishment of monasteries in Dharamsala, India and other parts of South Asia. This has created a shift in the way that young men are joining these monasteries and leading this age old religious tradition. Fifteen college…