Postc Colonial studies cultural studies and all and a personal confession she she she is my teacher and uh she has been my teacher for last 23 years and she’s she she she remains a teacher always uh thank you ma’am over to you and our speakers are Professor lanti chatani Ms University of Baroda
Professor dashna B uh from Gujarat University and uh Dr smuti ranjan Dalal from Central University of Gujarat ma’am over to you interes set of speakers who I think will come the question of mapping G and uh so we have 15 minutes for each presenter and we start we start with Professor Lati
Chatani from the Department of political science Ms University and uh she has contributed widely to a range of and she has a strong fo holded uh political the good afternoon and I would not go with the um rhetorical statement that a post lunch session is a difficult session
Because I think the pre-lunch session is more difficult you’re looking forward to the lunch now that the lunch is done with we can get to business uh so thank you Professor Archer for that very warm uh and for chering the session and I must put on record uh my gratitude to
Gujarat viap pit particularly the department of English um Atul aminder and yourself for inviting me here I must also say this is the first official visit of mine to Gujarat vapit so it’s special for me um I have chosen to and some of you as we were just talking I
Play with ideas so I’m playing with Gandhi because I think that all that is left now to do is to play with him and play is not bad um we know that as children we all love playing so please don’t look at play as something which is
Bad I’m playing with Gandhi uh in the morning giving his uh presidential remarks to the inauguration the vice Chancellor of uh the university um talked about how Gandhi is something that we all uh you know celebrate look up to um thank you very but cold water acknowledge can
I that we all look up to acknowledge celebrate and uh you know feel very proud of as Indians that Gandhi is an Indian but when it comes to us being Gandhi us doing a Gandhi we are a little hesitant so I’m going to do really this
About perhaps what is it to be a Gandhi today um and some of you would know that I have on three earlier occasions said that for me Gandhi and I’m going to say that Gandhi is a method he is not a man it’s a method and we have to make a
Method out of Gandhi but before that I want to also say something that I think what we have done in in India today is made a saint out of Gandhi and I want to go back to when and this is a fact uh when Richard atenor
Decided to make the film Gandhi 1959 he made it much earlier than when the he thought of it much earlier than the movie came out and he goes to neheru and asks Neu that tell me how Gandhi walked tell me how Gandhi talked explain to me
What do I do with with Gandhi and uh neru goes on to tell him things and and this is um this is a fact so um neru goes on to show him photographs and that is how the movie was thought of there are very harsh critics of Richard ateno
Gandhi but uh so neru goes on to give him the and then he says um so this is this is not documented but this is from bikar bikar says that when although the what I’m saying is documented but this part is not documented and the part is
This that Richard tatino takes the photo RS and leaves n’s the prime minister’s Bungalow and um and neru shouts Richard Richard and wait and I’m not this is how bikari told me Richard Richard wait uh so Richard and please when it’s 2 minutes just let me
Know I’ll wind up uh so when um so Richard said what so then and this is Gandhi g was a great man but he had his weaknesses his moods and his failings we Hindus have a tendency to turn anyone we see as great into a God
But Gandhi GI was much too human and complex to be one so keep him human and what bikai was asking is how do you translate this word Much Too Human in any Indian language this is the Department of English how do you translate this much too human and
Therefore what I’m going to do is to keep keep the humanness of Gandhi because I think it’s important for us he was not a saint um yes we we have designated him the father of the nation I do not know what his critical appreciation on that would be but I’m
Looking at him the way I look at Hobs l i don’t say Hobs g loock g Russo G um I don’t do that we don’t even say Neu G edar G but we definitely do say Gandhi g because we have made him a saint I just want to desacralize Gandhi in this paper
And um I’ve chosen to title the the paper from Civil Disobedience to critical sarage critical sarage is what I think we need today it’s not just sarage we have already attained it I think we’re very proud of it we’re in the 75th year of swaraj um so maybe we
Need to add a little bit more to what we have because I think we’re still quite short of um even being called uh in from political science perspective a successful or a work working Republic democratic form of government I think we forget the Republic all the time we talk
About democracy I’ll read a bit of the paper and I’ll come back to my but I just thought I’ll put this on record that I’m not looking at Gandhi as a saint so I am not going going to apologize for not calling him Gandhi g
He is for me not Gandhi g because if he’s Gandhi g then I can’t play with him you don’t play with God God plays with you in one of his many wellth thought and articulated works on Gandhi Akil bil gramy notes and I just met him yesterday
Although this was written before I met him it is generally fool hardly fool Hardy to write about Gandhi not only because you’re never certain you’ve got him right but because you’re almost sure to have him wrong while making this presentation I admit I’m confused by the same dilemma I
May be getting him wrong but as I said it’s okay to play among the most Revisited ideas of modern day India have been the gandhian concepts of swaraj ahimsa satyra and even swadeshi it has come back in a very big way now and yet they continue to remain the most
Slippery with each attempt at grasping them resulting in new and more Nuance forms and understandings the concern of this seminars this conference as identified in the title is attempt to understand the ideas of Gandhi across cultures put differently to revisit um the gandhian idea to to revisit um the
Ideas of Gandhi for a contemporary Global political understanding belonging to the discipline of Pol politics this paper is an attempt to contribute to this project by recognizing in the imperative to travel from the gandhian idea of civil disobedience to an interpretation of the gandhian concept of swaraj as a
Method as critical swaraj we have understood Gandhi in different ways as Mahatma as leader of the anticolonial movement as a symbol as a statue as a chapter in books of history and recently more and on the Note the currency note and even as his spectacles that and I think spectacles are without
Sight uh the spectacle as the SWAT bhatan um I wish the eyes of Gandhi were also brought in because my glasses can’t see my glasses facilitate my sight leave them aside they can’t see anything um or a chapter in the book of History which I think is soon going to
Get washed away I suggest that it is imperative for us and in particular to address the problems we confront and to recognize Gandhi as a method why swage evidently Gandhi developed and articulated his idea of swage or self-rule literal translation self-rule in terms of a response to both the colonizers justification for colonialism
As well as in opposition to the violent methods adopted by those who then came to be identified as extremists in their attempt to gain gain freedom from the colonizer and or those and or those who today justify the means of violence to address and resolve questions of Injustice and oppression and we know
That today violence has increasingly become the justification We Stand Up and Shout from Towers tall buildings and say put the rapist to death um little knowing little even thinking about the implication on the rape victim I’m not going to say Survivor uh if murder is equal to death then are we saying the
Rape victim is dead and therefore the rapist needs to be put but we don’t even give time to think about this we just we we we shout m i mean for Gandhi both these experiences that is colonialism as well as violence internally to solve problems of Injustice and opposition and
Oppression although poised on apparently contradictory arguments share something in common they both strip away the legit the legitimacy of the people to rule themselves according to Gandhi legitimate Rule and more importantly self-rule swaraj does and ought not to follow from an alien Authority just as it cannot depend on the politics of
Violence and exclusion at once one could locate the continuing relevance of the gandhian concept of swaraj in contemporary political cultures and I don’t need to talk about the incidents of violence that we experiencing all across the world where everyday politics is increasingly worked out and carried out on essentially exclusivist claims
Where people are violently excluded in the name of new found when we more than ever must recover and make dominant swage man it can’t just just be swage it has to be critical swage let me just not read more because I think I’m I’m more
Fall a short of time but why not Civil Disobedience why critical s and I’m saying from civil disob because Civil Disobedience was clearly the strategy adopted by Gandhi keeping in mind the fact that the law which he was disobeying was not made by him it’s not
A law which is authored by us it was a law which was authored by the colonial Master if the law is not authored by me I have a moral right to protest but what happens when the law is authored by me we are not only a democratic form of
Government we’re also Republic and we celebrate Republic on 26th January just round the corner so we’ll be celebrating 26th January and what is there to celebrate on 26th January is we gave ourselves the Constitution we gave ourselves the law and please do not forget that we first became a republican
Then we became a democracy why because we had to frame out the laws where we will direct our democracy so when the laws are made by me do I have the political moral maybe the political right to protest and I think that’s why Civil Disobedience and you’ll see this
Protest going on in many places but I would not call it civil disobedience or satyra that’s why you see that they will often take different forms the the when the farmers protest came interestingly it came as civil disobedience because they said you didn’t ask us before you
Made these laws these laws are not authored by us but I think we need to go one step ahead and talk in terms of critical swaraj um critical swaraj um um um so around the world and I think there’s there’s another problem which we see today one is that
Civil representatives and therefore it’s not politically uh justifiable for me now to say hello and remember in a Democratic Society your moment of protest is the elections so when you are protesting one protest at the time of the voting that is a moment of protest you can’t be on the streets and
Questioning the legitimacy of perhaps a form of of of a of a party or a person or a government something that I love uh because it was it was something that came up in um in response to both the left and the right so uh critical theory comes up to the shortcomings of
Classical Marxism as well as it comes up to the Holocaust which was experienced in Nazi Germany and you have the Frankfurt schools saying what is the the first lecture given by Mark Hughes says what is the role of Social Science Institute today when you have the left seemingly redundant uh not able to
Answer questions and the right coming up in this very violent way in Nazi Germany and I think it’s good and that’s why I think critical theory is fascinating and to put it in a nutshell critical theory will say you’ll have to do three things in order for your your um your
Understanding to be to be relevant it has to be explanatory it has to be normative and I think the problem with India Today is we have no normative Vision at all so this is foot and mou syndrome that um swage and I’m talking about the culture of critical Sage I’ll
Just because Pol violence is exclusive we have to think about an inclusive understanding and when we talk about India or bat or whatever we talk about I think the we should not it’s not really about and you know actually Nation interestingly nation is very inclusive concept Nation we have made it exclusive
But Nation assumes or acknowledges the fact that we are all different and because we different what is going to bind us therefore we need Nation then why do you need the concept of nation so Nation also ex but it’s inclusive I know it’s become exclusive today plurality um obviously equality and I’m
Going to put on record what the the contributions of edar to the concept of what I think is critical swaraj because as I keep on saying what would would have happened if Freedom was achieved but equality was not guaranteed what would have happened we would have gone back to monarchy we
Would have gone back to brahmanism we would have continued with it and would you have celebrated such an India so I think we need to put on record also not just swaraj and that is why I’m saying swage is not enough it has to be critical swage one minute uh critical it
Has to so equality obviously the understanding of fraternity fraternity is not nationalism fraternity is I choose to be an Indian we need to give some attention to the fact how many of us choose not to be Indian today and we see how many people for the mological and I think biological
Form of dialogue and I think dialogue is increasingly and where else do you see the absence of dialogue but in that institution which is supposed to be dialogical and that’s the parliament there is no dialogue this this is amazing and I’m looking at things as a political scientist please I’m not from the
Department of English literature so we and the last and the last and I think this is important for us I think we need to and I said this is why I’m playing with this man I think we need to replace our obsession with pleasure with our acknowledgement of
Pain we have to accept that we are a pained Society there is pain and I keep on saying this that the evidence give me just one minute the evidence of my being alive and one minute you tell me the evidence of my being alive is that I
Experience pain is it that I experience pleasure interestingly pain is what is productive not pleasure so I painfully work and that is what is produ I am experiencing pleasure and I think why is Gandhi a problem today check all the statues of Gandhi he’s in pain he’s not marching he’s walking he’s
He looks pained and when you raise or invoke Gandhi you invoke Gandhi because you are pained so when there is a protest or a saag you are do you sayh you and I think that is the problem with Gandhi today so what need to invoke pain as part of critical s I’ll stop
Here and I hope I haven’t short up my respected chair and friends my topic is different from the previous speaker topic because she has decentralized Gandhi and made Gandhi man and I’m going to make that man into Mahatma so the title of my paper is contemporary relevance of uh truth and
Nonviolence sat and ainsa as a solution to Global problem I would like to begin with a poem by kandas manik which is a summary of my entire paper which says Satan so that is a great is not limited or ordinary he believed that the power of nonviolence was
Stronger than the fire power nonviolence is not a concept not an ideology but the life force for him as he says ahinsa is the soul force and soul is imperishable changeless and eternal but the tast and condition it must every of our being and toate with every bre what we pray one
Cannot practice nonviolence without aay Gandhi only believe that Okay spe spe us to repent towards India’s Untouchable he wanted a United India he wanted a free India Gandhi believed that any political system this is very important when uh we are facing Russia Ukraine crisis Israel problem based on one’s own selfish interest can create conflict a system
Based on principles of Truth and nonviolence protects the interest of other nations Sera sad narrow Outlook desire to exploit and established heimy and of course the lack of Tolerance are chief causes which divide the Nations lack of Tolerance and possessiveness lead to false competition in which we
All live today uh one nation proves Superior by destroying other nations if this attitude continues the future of humanity will be at stake Gandhi’s concept of nonviolence is not limited to social political level but it extends to individual and um social level the cases of domestic violence occur in our daily
Life Gandhi g believes that respect and protect the Dignity of individual and if we respect and protect the Dignity of individual then I think theit are also human beings blacks are also human beings women lgbtq so Gandhi Vision visualize a society which is equal and uh I can category nonviolence teaches us
A Parra that is also very important one who holds things more than required resource in violence what is therefore needed is self restain s through nonviolence human beings can overcome innate weakness and evils Gandhi g succeeded in his experiments not only with truth but with nonviolence he is an
Example Worth emulating to present violence for society throughout his life Gandhi remained an epitome of Truth and nonviolence he preferred death rather than deviation from his path his message to humanity is the observance of Truth and nonviolence he wrote in young India nonviolence Works in a most mysterious
Manner for me nonviolence is not a mere philosophical principle it is a rule and breath of my life There Is No Escape from any of us to save through truth and nonviolence Gandhi G’s concept of nonviolence is a trend Setter which has also influence foreign thinkers we have
Nelson Mandela Martin Luther King so on and so forth the journey from MK Gandhi mandas karaman Gandhi to Mahatma is a journey taken through truth and violence truth and nonviolence can turn man into Mahatma and we into mahavir the concept of nonviolence has no boundaries it is
Not synonyms of cise but a spiritual Force to fight against the global terrorism this principle based on universal Brotherhood and peace we desire for harmonious peaceful and lovable society and the truth and nonviolence is the only way in the present Century all of us need to learn a mon
AA we can turn our globe into a beautiful world only through the means of peace and nonviolence and I would like to conclude with a beautiful Lines by none other than gopal Krishna go Gandhi g Humanity thank you very much thank you ma’am 15 yeah uh
My friend amandra has put me in a diff difficult situation uh because I find uh two stalwarts um I mean three why I said two because you know I I know uh them in person before this uh so uh Professor chatani happens to be my uh PD examiner
So you know that that that SC uh thing is okay and uh um Professor AAR is um my friend’s supervisor so that way it’s a little difficult situation to be a co-panelist with them and uh I stammer a lot so no no why I’m saying this standing in a big Hall which I
Really do not like so classroom is okay with me I been teaching for last 12 years and I been teaching Gandhi so I teach at the center for gandhian thought and peace studies uh but uh okay let me try uh what I have so my paper is titled as Gandhi self and
Sovereignity uh I don’t like to read out paper because that uh don’t uh give I mean that that doesn’t give the uh you know sense of attachment with your paper but due to POS of time I will have to do that you know sometimes so uh to understand Gandhi’s philosophy uh on
Anything you need to understand it in you know I mean from a holistic point of view because all his ideas are interlined with each other so if you need to understand gandhian concept of the self and you know its relation with sovereignity then you need to um
Understand it from a holistic point of view you know by linking it with SAR with swaraj with swadesi you know how he understood truth nonviolence and you know uh and other interrelated uh Concepts but uh that will be too uh mechanical to go on talking about all
These ideas one by one so what I’ll do is that I will map what was the concept of the self in Gandhi so as I see Gandhi as I look at him I find it was just uh you know when I’m talking about the gandhian self it is
The self that he philosophized but it is also the self that he tried to live throughout his life so uh so gandhian self was is or is a self of experimentation it’s a self of conviction it is a self of activism it is also a self of reinvention it is self
Of re interpretation you know modification of what Anthony parel calls it uh uh you know Gandhi tried to do conceptual trans transformation of a lot of you know existing ideas so I look at Gandhi or gandhian self a self who engages with the existing ideas
And to modify it to suit the you know the the uh the present context and that’s what Gandhi did if you look atuar text colonialism tradition and reform you you find that you you look at the edited text by uh FR dalir and uh uh between tradition and
Modernity you find that you know that uh if you look at the responses that the Indians had towards British rule bku par bku par gave a four-fold classification modernist traditionalist critical traditionalist and critical modernist so Gandhi can be located in the critical traditionalist uh you know
Fold why because you find a a kind of uh complex interplay between tradition and modernity if you look at Gandhi and uh you know Gandhi did didn’t have a very strong objective sense of History Gandhi talked about it a golden past uh you know a golden Indian civilization but he
Nowhere in that text in swaraj he would tell you you know when that golden past was there he would often you know call that no we had a golden past you know he he would Reser to the Traditions but then he would not say you know when that
Golden past was that’s why I claim that you know Gandhi didn’t have a great sense of History so you self is a sovereign self which can even you know um I mean which which which stands by the conviction and it can go against the uh the sovereign state so
The The Sovereign gandhian self can go against the uh sovereign state also you know the idea that lmen M was talking about um uh so what kind of reinterpretation or modification or reinvention that Gandhi did the first one is of course uh sarage sarage was the first uh or the major
Concept that Gandhi you know engaged with and you know he modified it saraj before and saraj existed before Gandhi played with that word sarage was thought to be uh negative Freedom or political Independence but then ghi changed it Gandhi uh you know Gandhi added the spiritual Dimension to it if you look at
The Indian civilizational uh you know values if you look at the ancient civilization Indians uh would look at spiritual Freedom or spirituality and they linked with linked it with uh enunciation you know if you want spirituality you want to go back to or or you want to renounce the family the
Society you have to go to the Himalayas so that you can get spiritual you know knowledge that’s what Buddha did that’s what many you know Traditions you find you know except the uh the Rishi know rajar janak who who was there in the you
Know as as a king but you know he was also a REI but other otherwise you find that in the Indian tradition you always valued um renunciation Gandhi changed it so Gandhi modified that concepts of concept of renunciation and he uh you know uh so he he he was interested in the concept
Of s prya that you find in Gita and Gandhi called Gita g ma you know whenever he was in doubt he used to read Gita for you know for uh guidance so Gandhi took this you know the concept of s PR from Gita and he thought that a
Self should be you know should be like a s PR means a equanimous self I mean you are not moved by by happiness or by grief and Gandhi also took Karma yog of yog from Gita and he and the interesting modification that he gave to Gita is also very
Interesting Gita normally you know if you uh I mean many you know in in many many Hindu homes you find uh the the uh the picture you know of Krishna and Arjun on The Chariot and uh so that is the that is the picture of Gita that we
Have in mind that mean that means Gita is a dialogue between Krishna and Arjun where Krishna exerts Arjun to to do righteous violence so Gita was interpreted as a text which preaches violence but Gandhi changed that meaning as I said Gandhi had this self who would take the existing idea
But modify the meaning that’s what he did throughout his life so he changed the meaning of Gita and he you know he he he argued that Gita offers you a imaginary Battlefield not the battlefield of kurra but the battlefield within ourselves where you know the evil and the good are in a continuous
Fighting so then Gandhi also modified the uh you know the meaning of Rights Gandhi had a very strong notion of right as as Anthony parel uh you know points out actually SATA was a method to to uh to secure rights whenever we we talk about saaga we normally talk about
Truth nonviolence but the emphasis on rights is actually missed you know from the discourse on SATA so SATA was basically a method by Gandhi to to secure rights but Gandhi had a different notion of Rights um the discourse of rights that you have in the west depends
On a kind of human uh being which is a bodily creature you know uh so there is no uh dichotomy between uh you know body and soul in the western uh philosophy uh in that sense that that we have in India so the Western discourse of Rights
Relies on human being as a bodily creature so rights are means secure your interest against the encroachment by the society or the state but Gandhi understood and you know he he also write that Indians educated Indians have this new Fati of obeying the law so I don’t know if it really meant he
Because it is not written by us this whole idea of obeying a law which which is below my below the law which my conscience tells me to obey so how do you respond to uh uh throw the light into Gandhi’s rights and duties he also uh said that I can uh I I
Can only have rights when I fulfill my duties so even if I have voted for a majority in state government which like 80% of the population then I also have a right to criticize that government as well because I have fulfilled my duty so that’s what I wanted to thank you
Uh the question is that some of the uh clarification was given by the the next speaker that traditional criticism of the Gandhi had said the ainsa and sat as old as the hills but when we look at the history then we have not too much examples of
Such things that can be a um can be a can become a uh discourse of the majority they are the minor examples of such ainsa and Satya we can say if you can take the Raja Harish Chandra or mahavir Swami but these are the small small means in the individual they not in
General this is my observation this is not a question as I believe that Ki was they were in favor of P he changed his view after the jalala B incident another thing is that he was heavily influenced by Bible uh he was heavily influenced by purism and uh if you have read the
Letters addressed to saraj CH Chan the niece of rindra he in fact use the word L Giver that is particularly the world which occurred in Old Testament also so most of the ideas I can associate of most of the ideas of Gandhi I can associate with stoic philosophy which is very difficult
To practice as uh sir has mentioned that he did not pay he did not pay his premium second premium so these ideas are very good when we are listening but it is very difficult to practice in a real life another thing is that I find the answer of my question which was
Raised by me in earlier session uh and my I found the answer in this session as ma’am has mentioned that we should consider Mr Gandhi as a human being yeah okay thank you I think what hello yeah uh I think what we’ll do is it’s uh we can have D’s question and
Uh then L can respond you can respond to the questions as well and so can so uh I think uh uh I also share with uh uh amarendra what he said uh what Professor uh chani presented regarding Civil Disobedience each each part of the story regarding Civil Disobedience that
I disobey your law because I have not made it neither me nor my representative that is part of the understanding of Civil Disobedience Gandhi had very strong notion of Civil Disobedience even when either me or my representative you know has uh drafted the law then also I can uh you know uh
Then also I can uh yeah I can I can I can disobey the law why because uh partly partly because the self can change I can become a you know changed self I may have drafted it I can you know disobey the same law
And also if you if you look at even John rolls and many other you know uh political philosophers Civil Disobedience can be compatible with the with with the idea of democracy because in any practicing democracy there is always this danger of majoritarianism so that is why the
Minority you know as elas also asked the minority and roles actually Associates it with minority that you know this is the last resure that that that that they can have so Civil Disobedience can be engaged in not only when I have not drafted it or when you know when the law
Is drafted by the uh Alien government but also when my own you know legislators have drafted it then also I can disobey because as omra pointed out because is a law that my conscience you know does not allow me to obey that is the not because you know somebody else
Has drafted it but because my conscience does not allow me to uh you know uh obey it thank you and and regarding regarding uh the the the U the um the comment that you know it’s difficult to practice that is true it is difficult to practice but
Then Gandhi was a human the message that lunti Madam was giving Gandhi was a human I mean how can we say that you know it is difficult to practice Gandhi went uh you know to the Law Court in uh in in South Africa by you know by
Cutting his hair himself when the white you know hairdresser didn’t uh you know agree to cut his hair he did you know he did it himself and when next day he reaches the court you know all the people made fun of him that Mr Gandhi you know maybe rats have you know it
Your hair so you know you you need to have that conviction and you need to have that courage to practice what you you know believe in thank you thank you um and let me Begin by thanking everyone for their uh very uh relevant comments let me begin with the
Human because I begin with the human and I won’t take the credit for that that goes to Neu um it is neru who told Richard atenor that he’s too he’s much too human and I’m I would request uh uh you know Indian languag is to try and
Translate this much to human it’s very important for us because I think all of us are much true human uh we should we and and um and I think we’re convenient with Gandhi how many minutes do I have five okay I think we’re very convenient with Gandhi because we when
We want to say that he’s subhuman we remember his experiments with celibacy uh that all um or or we we we those of us who who believe that there is this antagonistic relation between ambedkar and Gandhi remember the very stubborn fast that he goes on to and
Compels ambedkar to say that this old man should not die and um and and so sometimes we make him subhuman sometimes we make him superum and I think the credit of making him human is not mine it’s uh but I thought it’s important for us to do this let me just Begin by
Taking all I think there is a commonality to to all the questions um that nidi although I’m not sure nidi whether voting is my duty or voting is my right that’s the so um I’m not sure about and I don’t want to get into that comment now maybe that is a discussion
For it’s my right it’s not my duty um it’s an exercise of my sovereignity it’s an exercise of the fact that I contract the state that the person who is representing me it’s I I have a right over that person it is his duty or her
Duty to represent me but I think when we say it’s my duty to vote I think we’re kind of changing the language of democratic politics in a way which I would not agree with but there is a commonality to the questions that ilas um um Smithy and I don’t see aminder I
Don’t see as well but and and let me just try oh okay fine sorry sorry sorry uh let me just try and uh say what I didn’t say uh at the end of the presentation which I made and I think see why did I talk about about critical
Sarage so why did Gandhi get onto Civil Disobedience and Civil Disobedience has two uh Words which are somehow antithetic it’s civil and it is disobedient all right now if we come to um uh to uh swaraj and I’m that so if I say critical Disobedience I’m not being
As dialogical as or antithetical as Gandhi and but why do I have to be critical here why do I have to add this word critical I have to add the word critical because I said and I said it a little too quickly I know is that there
Is no normative Vision why do you want to do a disobedience in India today and I I I keep the farmers protest aside it that is a protest which political scientists need to study it is a protest which was successful which got the government to withdraw it’s and it’s
A protest which went on as a SAT the recent tribers protest do m but that was a and this was harming the interest of the market the farmers protest is something which you need to study but there is a shortcoming what is the criticalness of that and when I’m
Talking about criticalness I’m using it in terms of critical social theory which I mentioned what is the normative that you want what is the idea of India that you’re looking so for when Gandhi gets on to Civil Disobedience ET he has the concept of swaraj we have attained that
So there are two things which I want to say I can’t put critical disobedience you’re putting somewhat um somewhat um um anti uh you’re putting two and you’re not getting into the kind of dialogical thing between like civil disob civil disobedience is magnificent it is civil but it is disobedient so it
Makes it’s very very potent and that is why I use the word critical swaraj and not critical Disobedience the other thing which I want to say and I’m answering all of you if I fall short of any one of you please let me know the
Other thing which I want to say is that and that is following nidi see the problem with democracy is that and you have talked about this that we made our law and we have institutionalized dat and all but the problem with a democracy is this that you have also institutionalized
Protest you have institutionalized opposition so who is supposed to oppose the opposition in the Parliament and that is why please note and I’m here talking practical politics if I want to get onto a protest movement again the farmers movement is a is an aberration the for a pro I need police
Permission I’m I’m I’m not talking Greek I I I’m not talking you need police permission right the farmers protest or the post Nira rape protest were aberration because both of them did not go for police protest police permission all right so with democracy there is a
Problem the problem is that if you have institutionalized rule you have also institutionalized opposition and you know for instance if you if you read thinkers like if read this political HUD sing meta he’s talked about or you know when he says we the people give ourselves this law and that’s the way
The Constitution we the people and it was during the nrcc process that we went on saying we the people we the people so you have institutionalized protest now the the question is that we felt that Democratic institutions are so so effective that they’ll be able to in we
Be able to institutionalize self-rule as well as protest I and the last thing which I want to say in I didn’t mean and that’s important for me to say that I didn’t mean that because violence is now Justified it is moral I what I’m trying to say is that
When Gandhi uses nonviolence as a moral tool it is because at that time violence is not moral the problem look at the Gaza War for instance we are moralizing it we are moral it’s ch it’s necessary we need to do it so when you moralize violence how does nonviolence become a
Moral alternative it has you have to speak something else and that is why when I use the word critical sarage I think this is what we need to be this is we need to first work out a normative Vision what is that normative vision and I’ll just take half half a minute
Normative vision is what I was talking about the inclusivity the plurality the equality the condition of Freedom not freedom I you can’t grant me Freedom you have to grant me conditions of freedom and most importantly this celebration of pleasure I think we need to stop we need
To now focus on pain I know in a country which is celebrating 75 years of freedom to say let us talk about pain is bad but I think sometimes bad makes more sense for research institutes than the good the good has been accomplished let’s focus on the pain thank [Applause]
You responding the question it is written by Gandhi and it is Gandhi’s views and I made it very clear that during the viic period Nali pasali was there and it the violence came after the jism mahavir and Buddha and then ra Gandhi was influenced by Raj sakar so
That is what Gandhi’s views uh I have The History of Violence before MAV thank you no I think either they understood everything what I said they didn’t understand anything so there is no question for me so uh on that note with uh you know uh questions and counter questions I think
Uh are we I can call this uh session to a close a rich session which uh I think uh belide a post lunch session with exciting ideas and bringing Gandhi to life thank you yeah uh most of the time what I find interesting about academic uh conferences and Gatherings are we spend
Lot of time in non-academic things but uh I don’t know how to theorize at least this part right so with all the discussions being over we are still waiting for some things which are not part but which are part of human civilization and Indian culture so I
Don’t want to bely that tradition and I want uh d by to please present uh momento to SMY ranjan Dalal and D madam [Applause] [Applause] got [Applause] [Applause] thank you uh uh a small uh instruction te is waiting outside on this side and after that at 4:30 we’ll start with
Offline and online presentations uh uh group number F they have to uh uh they have to be here in this Hall only and uh group number D and E will go to the MD building uh Group D in the on the first group E uh basement in Hindi Department
Thank you if you have any problem please contact any of our student they will take you to the respective places please join us for uh for Te outside thank you how
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