Ambivalence and optimism: The contradictory meanings of education for lower middle class young men in Dehradun, India

This article explores the meanings that lower middle class male youth ascribe to education in Dehradun, the capital city of the north Indian state of Uttarakhand. By utilising qualitative research methods it highlights the contradictory nature of these meanings: young men are ambivalent toward education when discussing their experiences, yet optimistic when idealising education and imagining their futures. By interpreting these viewpoints through the theoretical framework of Pierre Bourdieu, I argue that these meanings reflect social, political and economic change in general and contradictions embedded in the education system in particular. While education has historically been used by the Indian middle classes to realise advantage and consolidate privilege, development discourses conceptualise it as a means of achieving social justice and realising equality. Struggles over the meaning education have important social implications for lower middle class young men: although they are excluded from education which they consider to be worthwhile, their discontent is mediated by hegemonic understandings of education. Highlighting these contradictory meanings can be seen as an important contribution to debates about education, development and the Indian middle classes.