The discourse of development or modernization and of "national integration" or "nation-building" in India is inseparable from issues surrounding education and culture and their incorporation in definitions forged during colonialism. In this article I look primarily at the Kothari Commission Report (KCR) of 1964-66 and the New Policy on Education (NPE) proposals of 1986. These two documents, between them, chart the entire discursive territory of projected developments in postcolonial India. Ambitious in conception, they are blueprints for the transformation of a society. I focus on the relation between the NPE and KCR as evidence of policy and education in India, and attempt to relate them to previous proposals by Gandhi and others and to my own theoretical preoccupations, particularly those regarding discourse and counter-players. (Contains 7 notes.)