Can the subaltern decolonize? The limits and possibilities of decolonial global citizenship education in India

The dominant policy discourse of sustainable development—including that of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—posits that we are facing a civilizational crisis, in which the current, universalized model of “development” no longer holds up, hence, “sustainable development” is ascendant as a global imperative. Global Citizenship Education (GCED), as enshrined in the SDG Target 4.7, is undeniably part of this global imperative. Decolonial approaches are gaining currency within academia as a movement to de-center the West as the epicenter of civilization and to “delink” from a self-serving narrative of “modernity” entangled with inherently violent and unsustainable systems of subjugation and oppression (“coloniality”). While delinking has been envisaged as a strategy in our struggle for equality and recognition of colonized and marginalized people, this article demonstrates how delinking strategies could be appropriated to promote exclusivist nationalism and a neoliberal agenda, through the analysis of India’s National Education Policy and related recent developments in the Indian education landscape. It draws attention to challenges associated with uncritically employing decolonial approaches in GCED in the Indian context and suggests possible ways to overcome them. Copyright © 2023 The Author(s) under exclusive licence to UNESCO International Bureau of Education.