Abstract:

At present, the world is experiencing a time in which the power of countries and regions is shifting and these shifts are much more fundamental than they were expected to be 20 years ago. The analysis of this development shows that India, like Europe, is being forced to respond to the growing competition, pluralization, multiculturalism, and international exchange that characterize the current age. Both Indian and European societies are democracies and they are highly internationalized; they use for example the same education structure, global telecommunication networks, international travel system, and worldwide market. India’s marginalization in the world economy in the past meant that it mattered little in global (economic) decision-making, but in the early years of the twenty-first century, India has begun to become economically important on the international scene because of its higher growth rate. Therefore, India and Europe face similar challenges nowadays, as for example growing pressures within their societies. Particularly through the exposure to different value systems and lifestyles, traditional social and cultural identities are nowadays called into question worldwide. While India, as well as China, is quite hopeful and much more confident about its own future development and potential, Europe has become more and more defensive because of the fundamental redistribution of global economic power in the world. Nevertheless, while India has a 21st century manufacturing and education system (in higher education), and a services sector with software and outsourcing, it also has a 19th century rural economy. The aim of the paper is to analyze India’s challenges: India is struggling with a high degree of social change, with urbanization, with people leaving rural areas, with a high number of illiteracy in the countryside, and with an erosion of its natural foundations. Furthermore, the economy must be integrated into a global economy based on a productive division of labor, and millions of young people have to be educated. The Indian subcontinent is known as remarkably young, with a population whose average age is 24. Therefore, India has to adapt to globalization’s uncertainty that it can reach the expectation to become the world’s largest economic power within the next 20 years. The theoretical framework of this research in the field of social sciences is based on an interdisciplinary conceptual structure in the fields of intercultural- and global education concepts and on theoretical foundations of globalization and development studies. The methodology of the study is based on qualitative research methods. The enquiry includes a set of investigation methods: First, analytical investigation which is based on interdisciplinary literature analyses; second, qualitative research methods: qualitative expert-interviews, narrative interviews as well as informal debates at different levels of formality in India (Rajasthan and Kerala) from December 2008 to May 2009.

Keywords:

india, education, twenty-first century.