Lokavidya Tana-bana

A new framework with new initiatives

in the areas of communication, connectivity and building relationships

in the lokavidydhar samaj to establish unity based on lokavidya.

In the Information Age the world of knowledge has begun to undergo a huge destabilization. New claims, new criteria, new places of knowledge activity, new types of knowledge activity and new instruments have come into existence throwing out of balance the entire world of knowledge. Possibilities have arisen to liberate the world of knowledge from the clutches of science. On one hand fundamental debates have begun in the philosophy of knowledge, creating respectable spaces for staking the claims of lokavidya. On the other, knowledge management and social media are creating new paradigms for development and politics, because of which new opportunities have arisen for conceptualizing new social formations based on the philosophy and reality of lokavidya and building a new politics of change based on lokavidya connectivity-communication frameworks. Lokavidya Jan Andolan and Lokavidya Tana-bana may be seen as enterprises shaping the initiatives of lokavidyadhar samaj in these new spaces.

The following emerged as the consensus in the Lokavidya Jan Andolan (LJA) Conference at Varanasi in November 2011 :

1.     LJA is the knowledge movement of the lokavidyadhar samaj.

2.     It places before the society the wide ranging and far reaching claims of lokavidya.

3.     It develops lokavidya perspectives on various movements of the constituents of lokavidyadhar samaj (farmers, artisans, adivasis, small shopkeepers and women).

4.     It shapes variety of initiatives to infuse lokavidya perspectives into the movements of the lokavidyadhar samaj.

5.     It spreads the idea of lokavidya in the world of activists through participation in and active relations with small and local organizations, institutions, struggles, publications and initiatives for connectivity and communications.

6.     It shapes all its activities in the light of the broad objectives of unity in lokavidyadhar samaj. It is in this unity that it also sees the criteria and tests of lokavidya perspectives.

7.     There is need of a new framework with new initiatives in the areas of communication, connectivity and building relationships in the lokavidydhar samaj to establish this unity and also for staking the desired claims of lokavidya before the world. It is this which is visualized as lokavidya tana-bana.

Lokavidya Jan Andolan (LJA) is in need of a connectivity-communication framework which is like media for the lokavidyadhar samaj. In the November conference at Varanasi related ideas were discussed in the name of ‘alternate media’ or ‘lokavidya media’. Since then in the discussions concerns are being voiced about the appropriateness of using the word ‘media’ for such purposes. It is contended that using the word ‘media’ invokes ideas and images that belong to a certain tradition which has not been in the interest of the lokavidyadhar samaj and also that it becomes a hurdle in the progress of ideas emanating from and connected with the world of lokavidya. It is in these discussions that the phrase lokavidya tana-bana emerged to suit the purpose. We need to deliberate on it and experiment with it to test its appropriateness and effectiveness. So, lokavidya tana-bana is suggested to be the name of the instrument for connectivity and communication in LJA.

1.     Just as lokavidya lives in society and does not reside in any institutions or instruments, similarly lokavidya tana-bana ought to be an inseparable part of society.

2.     It is constituted by people who take initiative from a lokavidya perspective to develop communication and connectivity within the lokavidyadhar samaj and take the message of LJA into the larger society.

3.     It does not see economics, politics, culture, social and philosophical aspects as separate from one another, but on the contrary insists on their being integrally related aspects of human thought and activity.

4.     It establishes connection between the activities and expressions of the lokavidyadhar samaj and develops new relations among them to facilitate and enhance the processes of recovery of their lost world and reconstruction of a new one.

5.     While working to build lokavidya tana-bana, we will need to understand the limitations and pitfalls of the concept of ‘representation’ belonging to the English-educated society of our country. In the ‘representative’ lies the sanction to legitimate existence outside and above the society. However moral, responsible, sensitive and efficient be this servant of society, these qualities fail to bring the representative back into the society. The idea of ‘representative’ itself presupposes a philosophy or world outlook that legitimizes existence outside and above society. This inevitably leads the society into rot, in different ways, in different places, at different times.

6.     Lokavidyadhar samaj does not want representative, on the contrary it needs to develop such limbs of its own which are capable of contention in the larger world to pave the way for its liberation. Lokavidya tana-bana is imagined to be such a limb of the lokavidyadhar samaj.

The conferences, publications and dialogues that will take place in the LJA during 2012 may open the debate on the idea of lokavidya tana-bana.

In a meeting in Vidya Ashram in February 2012 a committee was constituted for the Lokavidya Tana-bana initiative. It consists of the following.

1.     Ravi Shekhar, Convener        Lucknow

2.     Dilip Kumar ‘Dili’                 Varanasi

3.     Ekta Singh                            Singrauli/Lucknow

4.     Sunil Mandal                         Madhubani

5.     Ajay                                      Singrauli

6.     Gunjan Singh                         Wardha

Posted by Vidya Ashram