Schooling and Bureaucracy as Mediators of Livelihood Pathways in Northern-India

Anshu Jain

This dissertation explores the intersections of bureaucratic encounters, state policies, and the educational and livelihood experiences of marginalized communities in Hindi-speaking northern India. In this comparative ethnography of diverse experiences in a metropolitan and a non-metropolitan city in northern India, I draw on the fields of anthropology of education and anthropology of policy to study the encounters of students, citizens, and activists with educational and state bureaucracies; the situated impacts of these experiences and encounters on livelihood pathways; and the efforts of citizens to transform social, educational, and bureaucratic logics and practices to support more stable livelihoods. This study provides valuable methodological and theoretical contributions to the literature on making education relevant and equitable and directions for policy frameworks in India.

About Anshu Jain

Anshu Jain is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Anshu's dissertation research, funded by the Graduate Training Program Award (School of Education, UW-Madison), is an ethnographic account of the marginalization produced during the encounters of students, citizens, and activists with educational and state bureaucracies in Hindi-speaking regions of northern India, in the course of their efforts to transform social, educational, and bureaucratic logics and practices that govern their lives. Anshu grew up in a non-metropolitan city in north India, and obtained a master’s degree in Economics from Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi, prior to joining UW-Madison. As a teacher, scholar, activist, and writer, Anshu's goal is to work towards expanding educational rights, policies, and practices in India.