by Diyuk Bora 12 February 2021
The National Education Policy, 2020 is a grand scheme of proposed reforms targeting India’s current education system. The Ministry of Human Resource Development published the policy in July 2020 to outline a detailed account of changes that seek to restructure the existing primary, secondary and higher education system in the country- indicating some institutional and regulatory reforms. The policy does not limit itself by just advocating the structural changes in the ongoing educational foundation but goes as far as to propose an interdisciplinary academic curriculum so that learners could choose from a diverse range of study programs and apply for courses of their choice from different disciplines.
This interdisciplinary curriculum ignites hope for the holistic development of various area studies programs across colleges and universities.
Area studies programs, sometimes known as regional studies, emphasize the analysis of a particular region characterized either by socio-political and historical phenomena or cultural diversities. Area studies are typically interdisciplinary in nature, covering a more comprehensive range of issues in a particular geographical location. The program’s heterogeneous character covers both social sciences and humanities to deal with political science, history, political economy, International relations, strategic studies, language, etc.
This article attempts to understand Area studies programs’ scope in the recently published New Education Policy 2020.
Background of Area Studies
Area studies became widely prevalent in academic circles during the 1950s, right after the end of the 2nd World War. Political scientists and economists in the West looked for a way to understand and study the social, cultural, historical, and regional diversities in various parts of the world to cope with international politics’ changing dynamics. This paved the way for a new field of study under the banner of ‘area studies’ that focused mostly on an individual region’s contextual historical knowledge.
The Ford Foundation took the United States initiative to develop area studies programs by investing millions of dollars into U.S.-based academic councils for research, publications, and other related educational activities. ‘The formation of the Foreign Area Fellowship Program’ by the Ford Foundation is one of the key events in Area Studies’ evolution across the globe. Several Universities in the U.S. received financial assistance from the foundation to develop area and language studies.
Though the origin of the ‘area studies’ roots back to the U.S., the courses gained popularity in all the major European countries over time- including in the U.K. and the Soviet Union. At present, various Universities in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Australia have developed many courses in Area Studies.
Some of the standard fields of study under area study programs include American Studies, North and Latin American studies, Canadian studies, Caribbean studies, Asian studies, Islamic studies, European studies, and Pacific studies, etc., to name a few.
In India, almost all the top Universities offer several courses in the field of area studies. African Studies, European studies, Chinese studies, South Asia, and Southeast Asian studies are widely prevalent in Indian Universities today.
However, the academic journey of area studies programs in the Indian Universities has been full of ups and downs. The first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, was keen on introducing the area studies and international study programs in Indian academic circles. The introduction of International relations studies at the Indian School of International Studies (ISIS) in 1955 paved the way for the later development of area studies in various universities.
Though area studies programs now exist in Indian Universities, they have, from their earliest days, been handicapped by various conceptual fallacies and operational flaws, including – the absence of a theory, lack of multidisciplinary perspectives, analyses that are based on macro-level research, scarce fieldwork, deficiencies in language skills, lack of quantitative research projects, event-driven research agendas, a predominance of secondary sources in research, and taught courses which are too broad in their formulation and too narrow in their subject matter. (Sahni, 2009)
However, the New Education Policy, 2020, which aims at promoting interdisciplinary academic experiences for all the students studying in different streams, introduces a platform for the revival and wholesome growth of the area studies programs in India. The word “interdisciplinary” has been mentioned more than fifty times in the sixty-six pages of extended education policy, which clearly indicates the policymaker’s intention towards having holistic academic growth through an interdisciplinary curriculum. This makes room for focused attention towards the area studies programs by the academicians in the future.
The relevance of Area Studies today: a critical overview
In the past 150 years in the West—and Westernization has profoundly shaped universities in the non-Western world—an academic discipline has been the predominant prism through which knowledge is produced and disseminated. (Lie, 2012) The origin and uproots of the area studies programs attract the most substantial criticism in this domain. The area studies programs are often criticized for being guided by the viewpoints of American and Western intellectuals. The non-western academic circles critique the programs because all the geographical boundaries in the non-Western world have been defined through American and Western scholars’ political imagination.
With the Soviet Union’s disintegration in the 1990s – which led to the end of the cold war, many relevant issues in International studies earlier became irrelevant or questionable afterward. One of those issues was the continuation of the area studies programs.
Area studies only came on the scene with the world’s cutting into national states that covered the map after 1945. (Ludden, 2000) To maintain its hegemony in world politics, it was important for the U.S. to understand and study the cultural and historical dynamism that all the world’s individual regions possess. As a result, most private and state organizations in America financed the continuation of area studies programs. Ever since area studies’ significance and relevance have always been linked and measured with states’ national interest. Many scholars believe that as this field of study rooted in the U.S. to carry forward its national interest across the globe during the Cold War, the end of the cold war also suggests the discontinuation of area studies.
However, in recent years area studies have come a long way to remove themselves from the influence of immense power politics. Several research and a significant number of publications produced by the area studies courses have contributed handsomely to the growth of international relations as an academic discipline. In the process, area studies programs have been an active participant in the global knowledge production chain.
Instead, today, understanding a particular region in any part of the world is understanding their cultural pluralism and diverse political and historical background. Area studies help policymakers to analyze the choices behind a state’s foreign policy decisions. The relevance of area studies lies in the fact that it is no longer an American or Western dominant academic discipline; it has transcended its boundaries to serve the developing regions’ educational interest.
The relevance of area studies is immense in India, considering its geostrategic position in the South Asian region. The country is a central political power in the Indo-Pacific and a major threat to China’s dominance in South Asia and Southeast Asia. The area study programs could help study and understand the regional distribution of powers in South East Asia and the cultural diversity of all the countries in the region.
Embracing an optimistic agenda
The New Education Policy 2020 is a perfect collection of educational ideas, presented with various proposals; some new, some restated, and some resurrected from previous policy statements. (Govinda, 2020) However, the success of the policy depends on its implementation in the coming years. For now, one can only keep faith in the idea presented in the document to bring a radical change in the country’s entire academic structure. Apart from an interdisciplinary approach, the policy also suggests some institutional changes to be brought into the existing institutional arrangements before 2030. This could help the Area studies programs to develop their breadth and reach a wider audience in the academic circle. In several countries, there are institutions completely dedicated to the area studies programs. In India, this trend is yet to be developed. This is the time for Indian Universities to look towards the Area studies programs, not as a shadow discipline growing under the mainstream fields of studies like International Relations or Political science, but as a discipline with its own significance and applicability.
The attitude shown by the state towards ‘interdisciplinary education’ in the New Education Policy 2020 is brave and welcoming. The age-old rigid educational structure has been put into question, and the complementary relationship between different disciplines has been recognized. If the spirit is continued in the real field and educational rearrangements, then colleges and universities in India are moving towards a new academic experience.
References
Govinda, R. (2020). NEP 2020 : A Critical Examination. 50(4), 603–607. https://doi.org/10.1177/0049085720958804
Lie, J. (2012). Asian Studies/Global Studies: Transcending Area Studies and Social Sciences. Cross-Currents, 2(2), 1–23.
Ludden, D. (2000). Area Studies in the Age of Globalization. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, 6(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v6i1.76
Sahni, V. (2009). The Fallacies and Flaws of Area Studies in India. International Studies, 46(1–2), 49–68. https://doi.org/10.1177/002088171004600205