Education for the Marginalized: A Narrative of Public Sphere and NGOs at the Grassroots Gujarat of India

Abstract

The Habermasian conceptualization of the public sphere as a bourgeoisie institution of private citizens emerged in eighteenth-century Europe as a ‘discursive space’ to deliberate on critical issues of the society. It is largely based on communitarian values to promote the common good and social change in the structure of the society. Apart from European society, such institutions have emerged in various countries including India. However, in the Indian context, the public sphere has been hegemonies by the dominant social groups, consequently the benefits of the common good too largely enjoyed by them, and therefore the representation of socioculturally excluded and marginalized has been neglected and subordinated by the dominant public sphere in the Indian society. It is in this context, the present paper tried to highlight the neglect of Dalit issues and the common good for Dalit by the dominant public sphere paved the way for the emergence of Dalit public sphere and civil society in Gujarat.