Background note for
discussion on 24th Feb 2013 in Mumbai
Dialogue with the World of Art, Media &
Philosophy
In this new age of information and
globalization, it has become imperative that available spaces are recognized
afresh and new ones created, where the agencies of change can connect with one
another. Lokavidya tana-bana is suggested to be such a space. Lokavidya tana-bana refers to the web of relationships and
connectivity among the people, a horizontal web so to say. This
note is to develop the focus for a dialogue on lokavidya tana-bana with
activists from the world of art, media, philosophy and social movements. The
brief set of paragraphs below are written to argue for and press for the
importance of lokavidya tana-bana as the space or location critically significant
for debates in the course of development of
a new philosophy and polity of change in the unfolding world.
Lokavidya: For
almost two decades now we are in an era characterized by the new sciences
(info, bio, nano and cognitive), internet, globalizing policies and frameworks
in practically every area - economics, politics, education..., the new American
wars and a veritable war on the people across nations by the new industry and
the market assisted by the new state. The new movements of opposition to these
phenomena and tendencies are growingly relying more on people’s knowledge and
ways of thinking, lokavidya. The making of the new world is observing at one
end sweeping displacement and uprooting of the peasants and the adivasis and at
another their assertion based on their own knowledge and ways. Lokavidya seems
to provide that anchor around which a fresh unity of the diverse peoples of the
world can assume emancipating dimensions. See Annexure-1 for reference to discussions
on lokavidya.
The
pace of change as well as the newness, both in forms of control and in people’s
opposition, practically outstrips theory, leaving large spaces open for fresh
imaginations. Received theories are at bay and the knowledge activity of the
people, lokavidya, is preparing again to
be the great source of ideas for a new and desirable world.
Transition in the world of knowledge: One
great thing that is happening with all this is coming down of science from the
absolute position it occupied earlier and the scientific method no more being
honored as the criterion of
legitimization of knowledge. An almost unprecedented enlargement of the world
of knowledge is taking place, and this among other things is due to the
recognition now of people's traditions of knowledge as valid traditions,
granting epistemic dignity to knowledge in society. Such knowledge is generally
referred to as lokavidya. Art, media, language and philosophy, namely areas of
great and creative human activity, particularly areas of knowledge activity
which have always been beyond the dictat of science, are being seen as areas of
knowledge activity in their own right. See Annexure-2 for the present
transition in the world of knowledge.
Lokavidya Tana-bana & radical change
Lokavidya Tana-bana is
expected to become that location where the ideas and activities for change in
society naturally connect and interact with one another. It is to be developed
as a location where artistic activity, forms of communication, struggles &
organizations of the lokavidyadhar samaj and also all individuals, groups and
organizations engaged in struggles for justice connect with one another and
also engage in new experiments. There is a lokavidya tana-bana in society,
which in the form in which it exists is unable to serve the purpose being
discussed here. And it is precisely here that art and media can play a truly
transformative role by developing those new forms of representation,
expression, articulation, communication such that lokavidya tana-bana assumes
political significance.
Lokavidya Tana-Bana is
not to become an institutional space. Just as lokavidya resides in society,
similarly, lokavidya tana-bana too ought to reside in society and develop as a
limb of the same.
·
Annexure-1
Lokavidya Dialogues and Campaign
The
idea of lokavidya has been in debate for about two decades now. The Congresses
of Traditional Sciences and Technologies of India held in 1993 (IIT Bombay),
1995 (Anna University, Chennai) and 1998 ( Gandhian Institute of Studies,
Varanasi) drew attention to the growing importance of people's knowledge, so
much so that the Varanasi Congress was named Lokavidya Mahadhiveshan. There are
articles written, presented in various workshops and also published on
economic, philosophical and political aspects of lokavidya. Journals have been
published with the titles Lokavidya Samvad and Lokavidya Panchayat. There have
been workshops on Dialogues on Knowledge in Society in various World Social
Forums (Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Karachi, Nairobi). Dialogues on lokavidya
have been conducted across the social spectrum, from among the university
educated to the locations of peasants, adivasis and artisans. There have been
conferences of Lokavidya Jan Andolan in Varanasi (UP), Darbhanga (Bihar),
Singrauli (MP) and Chirala (AP). There are blogs conducting online dialogues
and the protagonists of lokavidya actively participate in some international
lists. The Vidya Ashram website www.vidyaashram.org
puts together the whole gamut of ideas and practice centered on lokavidya.
·
Annexure-2
Transition in the World of Knowledge
At the Turn
of the Century ( 20th to 21st)
- Whereas earlier there was an oppressive hierarchy with physical sciences at the top and life sciences, social sciences, language, art and so on following in that order, now this order stands greatly disturbed, no steady order any more commands respect and value.
- Whereas earlier other knowledge systems and traditions hardly had a place in the world of knowledge modeled by science, now there is recognition as knowledge to people’s traditions of knowledge, particularly lokavidya.
- Science and technology now have competition from media, art, design and language both as genuine knowledge activity and in the world of commerce.
- New sciences are emerging, namely information science, science of knowledge management, cognitive science.
- In the previous age the paradigms of physical science infested all knowledge activity, e.g. studies of language, society, art-criticism and even philosophy, but no more so. New paradigms from people’s knowledge, art, media, Eastern philosophies, life sciences and information sciences are making their way felt.
- The place of knowledge activity is shifting from the university to the virtual domain or internet on the one hand and on the other to society (witness the increasing recognition to innovation).
- The criteria of legitimacy of knowledge are changing from the scientific method to on the one hand organizability by the new technology/software and on the other human concerns.
- The technology front has moved from the power based industrial technologies to radically new areas, namely, info, nano and bio technologies.
- National controls of the world of knowledge have given way in a large measure to international financial and corporate controls.
- Movements for the assertion of people’s knowledge in both social and technical areas, the free and open software movement, rise of regional languages and the arts including design, media, and cinema are the new knowledge movements.
Something
very basic has changed in the world of knowledge pointing to an opportunity
hitherto not known to the marginalized and the oppressed of the modern world.
The initiative this time can and must come from those who have a human concern
and who with their activity have been re-instituted in the world of knowledge.
·
Vidya Ashram
