Education, Poverty and Gender : Schooling Muslim Girls in India

This book analyses the socio-cultural politics of education among Muslim girls in India, and explores the linkages between pedagogy and religion in South Asia. It adopts multiple research methods and interdisciplinary approaches — ethnographic observations, interviews, and data and discourse analysis — to demonstrate the role of religion, education, class, and gender in determining the quality of education as well as identity formation.

This book investigates the nature of identity formation among economically backward adolescent Muslim girls in northern India by focusing on the interstitial spaces of the ‘home’ and ‘school’. It examines issues of religion, patriarchy and education, to interrogate the relationship between pedagogy and religion in South Asia.

Using a multi-disciplinary approach and multiple research methods, the volume makes significant contribution to the study of socialisation and modern education among minorities and other marginalised groups in India. It will be of interest to scholars of education, culture and gender studies, sociology, psychology, Islamic studies, and to policy-makers and non-government organisations involved in education.