Learning to Live Together Harmoniously: Spiritual Perspectives from Indian Classrooms

For an educational zeitgeist so rooted, and understandably so, in measurable, scalable, and replicable results, it is difficult to entertain the idea of an unquantifiable goalpost. Although terms like socio-emotional learning (SEL), teacher-student relations (TSR), and Emotional Intelligence (EI) feature increasingly as educational priorities in today’s polarised, rapidly-changing world, they continue to be framed in ways most familiar to educationists: as subjects, competencies, or tangible metrics (NCERT, 2005; UNESCO, 2018). Yet, if an education predicated on a deeper, more holistic practice of these ideas could foster a sense of self-awareness, wellbeing, and peaceful coexistence with one’s fellow beings without ‘compromising’ on more conventional markers of educational success, would we rethink our approach?

Against this backdrop, Dr Jwalin Patel’s book is a welcome meditation – with all the introspective connotations of the word – on education for harmony, an onto-epistemological approach that transcends knowledge or skill-based goals to hold transformation in one’s way of life as the aim of education. A post-critical inquiry into teaching and learning practices for Learning to Live Together Harmoniously (LTLTH), the book draws on an ethnographic multiple case study of (primarily) five alternative schools across India that embody education for harmony. The author examines classroom ethos, pedagogies, TSR, behavioural management, and teachers’ and school leaders’ worldviews, which are supplemented with ideas from thinkers such as Jiddu Krishnamurti, Aurobindo Ghose, Rabindranath Tagore, Paulo Freire, and others to draw out ‘kernels of practices’ (205).

These voices, experiences, and ideas are synthesised into the book’s (arguably) most powerful contribution: an interconnected two-dimensional framework for LTLTH. Composed of three domains, each with six dimensions, the framework bridges existing scholarly frameworks for similar concepts (see for example Dietrich, 2013; Mayer and Salovey, 1997). Notably, it also introduces in its third domain of ‘discovery of the world’, an unprecedented emphasis on the wider living and nonliving ecosystem surrounding the individual.

The book is divided into two parts. The first five chapters comprise Part I, which examines the concept of education for togetherness and harmony and introduces the LTLTH framework. On the foundation of a clear, methodically-built case for LTLTH, the four chapters in Part II explore praxis for such a vision of education. To this end, rich narratives, analytical insights and personal reflections from Patel’s case studies are combined with wider literature to systematically unpack the various intricacies of LTLTH in practice.

Thick descriptions based on rigorous mixed-methods research make an immersive experience of Patel’s elaboration of the key features of education for harmony; LTLTH emerges through an individualised (non-linear) continuum of shared lived experiences (interconnected). It should permeate every arena of school and life (holistic) and involves finding harmony both internally and with the world outside oneself (non-anthropocentric). Schools serve as centres of lifelong learning that facilitate this ‘sacred form of integral education of the whole person’ (202) that involves not just students but also teachers, parents, administrators, and the wider community.

Yet, juxtaposing the tenets of LTLTH with the realities of mass Indian education raises questions around one fundamental consideration: practicality. Even in the case-study schools that have voluntarily committed to LTLTH values, Patel acknowledges that the ‘seeds of harmonious living may or may not germinate […] during school life’ (125).

Meanwhile, mainstream government schooling in India is widely seen as characterised by high pupil-teacher ratios (OECD, 2023), overburdened teachers, and typically inflexible, time-bound curricula (Muralidharan and Singh, 2021; NCERT, 2023, 563, 596). For this bureaucratic monolith still grappling with fundamental issues of quality and efficacy (ASER, 2022), structure, linearity and replicability can seem essential prerequisites to avoiding administrative babel.

By contrast, the practices suggested in this book hinge on introspection, autonomy, care, slowing down, dialogue, individualised approaches for each student, and educators who reflect on their own ways of being (199). What happens when this inherently slow and deeply context-dependent ideology meets the almost diametrically opposed realities of the typical Indian classroom? Is mainstream schooling even capable of accommodating such an ideology, and even if it were, what levers hold the power to shake this machine out of business-as-usual and embrace an amorphous ideology that, as Patel describes, must be caught, not taught (123)? We might also ask what circumstances and perceptions led parents, particularly those from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, to send their children to these alternative schools. Finally, how might education for harmony be practically translated across the immensely diverse landscape of Indian schooling?

The author acknowledges that this is no small ask. A large-scale vision for LTLTH demands a reimagining of education beyond the strictures of curriculum towards an appreciation of process and individual learning journeys. Such a goal cannot be achieved simply through replication. It would require a constellation of localised, context-conscious visions that work together harmoniously.

Patel’s proposition for achieving this is simple (and anything but): walk your own path and ‘adapt, rather than adopt’ (206). Here, the book embodies the same non-prescriptive intellectual humility and respect for nuance that anchors its subject matter, and turns to you, the reader, to situate its ideas and provocations within your own context. To facilitate this, each chapter concludes with reflective prompts for the reader.

As uncommon in this collaborative approach as in its focus on pedagogy, this work offers neither easy answers nor silver bullets. What it does offer is a vivid, sensitive, and reflective glimpse into a different way of doing things. Crucially, the reader is not a passive receiver but an integral participant in the objectives of this book, the value of whose contribution, I surmise, is ultimately this: reality has its seeds in imagination. This work is a thorough and uplifting attempt to mobilise the power of collective imagination to bring forth a more conscious educational ecosystem for our times. Such an enterprise way may well require a paradigm shift. This is precisely why the book should be in the hands of educationists at every level of the field, from practitioners and leaders to students, academics, philosophers, decision-makers, and enthusiasts. This is a conversation certainly worth joining.