Art schools should be places where ideas collide, mutate, and grow. In India, they often become echo chambers of authority, where students are trained to follow instructions rather than question them.

The classroom dynamic is top-down. Teachers set assignments with little room for interpretation. The safest route for a student is to deliver exactly what is asked. Risk-taking is discouraged because failure carries a penalty. In this environment, students learn to avoid challenging ideas and instead aim for work that will “please” the faculty.

Critique sessions are a missed opportunity. In many institutions, they’re either shallow — focusing on execution rather than concept — or they devolve into ego exercises for the instructor. Students are rarely taught how to give or receive critique constructively, so feedback becomes either vague encouragement or personal attack. Without a culture of rigorous dialogue, the ability to interrogate one’s own work never develops.

The absence of critical thinking extends beyond the studio. Art history is memorised, not analysed. Contemporary debates — from censorship and appropriation to the ethics of representation — are barely discussed. Students graduate without the vocabulary or confidence to articulate why their work matters or where it fits in the larger discourse.

In other countries, art education treats criticality as a skill to be practised daily. Students are exposed to theory, contemporary debates, and interdisciplinary thinking from their first year. They are taught to defend their choices, respond to challenge, and engage with opposing viewpoints.

Indian art education can’t afford to keep producing technically capable but intellectually timid graduates. Replace grade-based evaluations with project-based reviews. Make peer feedback part of the process. Invite artists, writers, and thinkers from outside the institution to lead discussions. Critical thinking is not a luxury — it’s the foundation of a sustainable practice. Without it, art schools produce only hands, never voices.