India’s ancient philosophy on holistic education and its relevance for target 4.7 of the United Nations sustainable development goals

Abstract

The paper's objective is to study one of the world´s early living civilizations, i.e., India, focusing primarily on its rich ancient philosophy with specific reference to holistic education to understand how it may act as a prototype for target 4.7 of the Sustainable Development Goals. The study uses Interpretive sociology to understand the meanings contextually from the insider's perspective. Extensive and intensive usage of symbolism in Indian philosophy is studied through social constructionism and phenomenology. India’s ancient philosophy on holistic education has a relevance to modern approaches to address sustainability issues such as by addressing specific aspects of the SDGs, or the SDGs holistically, given the goals interconnects, and potential synergies and trade-offs, thereby serving as a prototype for target 4.7 of SDG 4. The findings also revel a lack of connection to higher power of spirituality. The originality of the study is the effort enabling comparative analysis across contexts, by placing the SDGs in the context of India’s ancient philosophy on holistic education, befitting the expectations of SDGs, specifically target 4.7. Authors are aware of the tendency of the “book view” (Indological Approach) to homogenize but this is in tune with the papers objective as the intention is to draw an ideal–typical proto-type of holistic education.