This chapter proposes to raise some fundamental questions relating to education. What is meant by a ‘national’ education? How does it relate to the state? Is the idea of nation relevant in the twenty-first century? And, finally, what kind of education should we plan for India in the light of these questions?

For those who have been following the order as well as the drift of these questions, their interconnections should be obvious. Nevertheless, it may help to spell out some of them. There is, to my mind, a great deal of confusion regarding what we mean by nation. A lot of people use it interchangeably with the idea of the state. Hence, when we speak of a topic such as national education, we sometimes equate it with the state's educational policy. But isn't there a way of conceiving the nation so as not to confine it to the state? Often, a certain lack of clarity dogs such inquiries.

Similarly, the links between culture and nation, on the one hand, and between the nation itself and its education system are seldom examined rigorously. To worsen our confusion, some of these terms have become so ideologically charged that it becomes practically impossible to discuss them dispassionately in intellectual circles. A certain kind of well- or ill-intentioned wishy-washiness coupled with the passionate decrying of our perceived opponents’ positions becomes the substitute for clear thinking.