Education policy is closely connected with the society in which it develops. Changes in education are therefore not only changes in curriculum, institutions or teaching methods; they also reflect changing ideas about the individual, citizenship, knowledge and social development. This paper examines the evolution of education policy in India from indigenous intellectual traditions and colonial education to the major post-Independence policy frameworks and the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The study adopts a qualitative historical-interpretive methodology, combining analysis of major policy documents with perspectives from Indian philosophy and sociology of education. Particular attention is given to the Education Commission (1964–66), National Policy on Education (NPE) 1968, NPE 1986/1992 and NEP 2020, along with the educational thought of Swami Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo and B. R. Ambedkar. The paper argues that the purpose of education in India has changed with changing social circumstances: from knowledge and personal formation, to colonial administrative requirements, nation-building, social justice, human-resource development and, more recently, holistic development within a knowledge society. NEP 2020 is examined in this historical context rather than as an isolated reform. The paper argues that the policy represents neither a complete break from earlier educational thinking nor merely a continuation of it. Instead, it brings together several strands of India's educational history, including social justice, national development, Indian knowledge traditions, scientific inquiry, technological change and global engagement. The main contribution of the paper is a philosophical-sociological framework for understanding policy change through six questions: What is education for? What kind of learner does society want to develop? What kind of citizen is required? What knowledge is valued? How is inequality addressed? And what changes in society make educational reform necessary? By bringing these questions together, the study offers a way of reading Indian education policy as a reflection of changing ideas about the society India has been, the society it is, and the society it wishes to become.