Religion, Community, and Education.: The Case of Rural Bihar

In recent times, religion-based educational disparities in India, especially between Hindus and Muslims, have been the focus of passionate debate. Yet, there is considerable gap in understanding the dynamics of religion and propensity to education. This book assesses literacy and educational levels among Hindus and Muslims in rural Bihar as well as the disparity therein. The author uses a distinctive conceptual and analytical framework to examine educational disparities in schooling between these religious communities in particular. In doing so, he applies spatially embedded historical trajectories to examine their educational development. It is argued that religious communities have to be seen as spatially embedded rather than as homogeneous socio-cultural aggregates, for spatial locatedness reflects varying and complicated patterns of socio-economic and educational outcomes. The study is based on extensive fieldwork conducted in rural Bihar, covering 300 households and 700 schoolchildren. It also draws upon empirical data from the Census and NSSO.