Decolonising Curriculum Beyond Colonial Legacy: An Indian Perspective through a Critical Pedagogical Lens

This paper is a critical analysis of decolonising curriculum in India as a critical pedagogy and identifies the prevalence of colonial epistemologies in modern-day education systems. The Indian educational system, even after the reforms, still favours Eurocentric knowledge, language hierarchy, and standardised practises of assessment, which excludes the indigenous and subaltern epistemologies. Basing the study on the theoretical contributions of Paulo Freire, Ngugi wa Thiong and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, the research conceptualises the form of decolonisation as an epistemic change, instead of the inclusion of indigenous material. Using a conceptual research design of qualitative research design, the study will rely on a systematic review of interdisciplinary literature in an interpretive manner and critical discourse analysis and thematic analysis to challenge knowledge hierarchies and curricular organisation. The conclusions demonstrate that the effective decolonisation process presupposes the radical reorganisation of the epistemic frameworks because superficial inclusion can lead to tokenism, and it is not effective in terms of solving the underlying inequalities. Another issue of the study is the presence of major challenges, such as nationalistic appropriation and pedagogical restraints, that can destroy transformative endeavours. In reply to it, it suggests a critical pedagogic model based on dialogic pedagogy, epistemic pluralism, reflexivity, and social justice orientation. The paper will further state that systemic change in policy, pedagogy and institutional practices is required to result in the decolonisation of the curriculum and promote the achievement of epistemic justice and learner agency. The research adds to current arguments in the curriculum study and provides important implications for policy changes, teacher training, and future research in the Indian scenario.