Introduction:

The concept of sustainable development has been recognized by the global society as a key concept for further growth and while a general definition of sustainable development is lacking, it is useful to analyse this term in the context of the three dimensions – ecology, economy, and society. In contrast to ecology and economy, the social dimension has not received much scholarly attention in the past. In this paper, we focus on the social dimension of sustainable development to link the concept to the theory of social justice. The analysis follows the capital approach to examine this relationship. While it is undisputed that social capital has a positive impact on the creation of human capital, we also explore the reverse theory that human capital – or education – also influences the creation of social capital. We further examine the role of education or, rather the role it should play, in the achievement of sustainable development. We next research the extent to which education plays such a role in India. This starts with an overview of the Indian education system and focuses on the affirmative action or case-based quota system used in India, a very interesting topic with regard to our discussion of social justice.