1. Introduction: The Mask of Mobility

Education is universally hailed as the great equalizer—the ladder that allows a child from a humble background to climb to the peaks of success. But have we ever stopped to ask: What does the climb require? Does it merely require hard work, or does it require a fundamental shedding of one’s own skin?

In the Indian context, social mobility has historically been tied to a process sociologist M.N. Srinivas termed “Sanskritization.” Originally, this referred to lower castes adopting the rituals, diet, and dress of the upper castes (Brahmins/Kshatriyas) to gain status.

Today, the rituals have changed, but the logic remains. The school has become the new temple of Sanskritization. Instead of Sanskrit mantras, the new language of power is English. Instead of the sacred thread, the new marker of status is the school tie.

This article argues that modern education often functions as a machine for Cultural Mimicry. For the Dalit, Adivasi, or rural child, success in school often demands a silent disowning of their home culture, language, and values. We will explore whether this trade-off—dignity for degrees—is a necessary price for progress, or a form of structural violence.

2. Analysis: The New Hierarchy

Defining Sanskritization: M.N. Srinivas

Srinivas observed that the lower castes did not try to overthrow the caste system; they tried to rise within it by imitating their oppressors. They gave up meat, alcohol, and widow remarriage to appear “purer.”

The Educational Parallel: In schools, students from marginalized backgrounds are taught that their dialect is “impure,” their food is “uncivilized,” and their local history is “irrelevant.” To succeed, they must adopt the “Standard” (read: Upper Caste/Class) culture.

Westernization as the New Sanskritization

Srinivas later noted that while the lower castes mimicked the Brahmins, the Brahmins mimicked the British (Westernization).

Today, the “English Medium” school represents the apex of this hierarchy. It is not just a place to learn a language; it is a place to acquire a new habitus.

The Mimicry of Manners: Schools police the body. Students are punished for speaking in their mother tongue. They are taught “Table Manners” that are alien to their homes (eating with forks instead of hands). This creates a psychological split: the child learns that the “Home Self” is inferior to the “School Self.”

The Curriculum of Erasure

Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd, in Why I Am Not a Hindu, critiques the Indian curriculum for being Brahminical. He asks: Why does a child learn about the pen (the tool of the priest/scribe) but not the leather (the tool of the shoemaker) or the iron (the tool of the smith)?

The productive culture of the lower castes—agriculture, craftsmanship, animal husbandry—is absent from textbooks. Instead, students memorize the poetry of Wordsworth or the philosophy of Gandhi.

For a first-generation learner, the school offers no mirror to their own life. It offers only a window into the life of the elite. To look through the window, they must turn their back on their own reflection.

Bourdieu: Cultural Capital and Symbolic Violence

Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of Symbolic Violence is crucial here. It refers to the imposition of a culture as “universal” when it is actually arbitrary.

When a teacher corrects a student’s pronunciation of “Schedule” or mocks their “village accent,” they are exercising symbolic violence. They are enforcing the idea that there is only one “correct” way to be. The student internalizes this shame. They begin to “Sanskritize” themselves—polishing their accent, hiding their background, changing their surname—to fit in.

Identity Crisis: “Cultural Schizophrenia”

The result of this process is often Cultural Schizophrenia. The educated Dalit or Adivasi youth finds themselves alienated from their community (“You have become a Sahib”) but never fully accepted by the elite (“You are a quota candidate”).

They exist in a liminal space. The education that was supposed to liberate them has instead unmoored them. They have gained a job, but lost a home.

The Paradox of “Merit”

The system claims to reward “Merit.” But if “Merit” is defined as proficiency in the culture of the elite, then “Merit” is just a code word for Inherited Privilege.

Those who adopt the new culture fastest—often at the cost of their mental health and identity—are rewarded. Those who cling to their roots are labeled “backward” and filtered out.