Learning Identity

Learning Identity takes readers into the world of the private, unaided Sikh minority schools in Delhi, which are lively spaces bringing together students from different faiths. The book examines how these schools promote the ethos and values that infused their origin among their current Sikh students, whose numbers have, ironically, decreased considerably. Agarwal analyses the challenges that such institutions face in balancing religious pedagogy with the interests of the non-Sikh students. The book further explores the differences between how students learn to think about their identities within the schools and how they are conceptualized in the world beyond. Offering a rich account of the students' and parents' subjective responses on schooling, aspirations, and the ways of belonging to a community, the book provides a nuanced perspective that unpacks the inner workings of such schools. Learning Identity thus sheds light on the everyday learnings and negotiations through which students pursue their aspirations of accessing English-medium education in institutions that they identify more as private English-medium schools than as religious minority ones.