Tuesday, December 11, 2012

The Proposed Mumbai Dialogue On Lokavidya Tana-bana


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.


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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.

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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.

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 Vidya Ashram

Sunday, December 2, 2012

मुंबई बैठकें : 23-24 फरवरी 2013

विद्या आश्रम की मुंबई बैठकें 
23-24 फरवरी 2013
बायो मेडिकल एथिक्स सेण्टर, सेंट पायस कालेज, आरे रोड, गोरेगांव (पूर्व)


विद्या आश्रम साल में एक बड़ी बैठक करता है जिसमें सैद्धांतिक और कार्यक्रम सम्बंधित बातें होती हैं। इस साल यह बैठक 23-24 फरवरी को मुंबई में हो रही है।  बैठक में मुख्य रूप से विद्या आश्रम के सहकर्मी, लोकविद्या जन आन्दोलन की संयोजन और सलाहकार समितियों के सदस्य तथा मुंबई के सामाजिक कार्यकर्ता व ऐसी रूचि के कलाकार शामिल होंगे। इस ब्लाग को भी निमंत्रण माना जाये। जो भी आना चाहते हों, हमें खबर करें। रहने-खाने और बैठक की व्यवस्था एक ही जगह पर है।

इस वर्ष की बैठक में निम्नलिखित विषय रखे गए हैं।
  1. लोकविद्या जन आन्दोलन 
  2. लोकविद्या आश्रम 
  3. लोकविद्या ताना-बाना  
  4. लोकविद्या दर्शन 
  5. शोध व अनुवाद 
  6. भाईचारा विद्यालय 
  7. प्रकाशन व इन्टरनेट 
इन सभी विषयों पर तैयारी का पर्चा, हिंदी व अंग्रेजी दोनों में, विद्या आश्रम की  वेब साईट पर देखा जा सकता है।

लोकविद्या जन आन्दोलन में पिछले एक साल में उत्तर प्रदेश, बिहार, मध्यप्रदेश और आंध्र प्रदेश में पहल ली गयी है। अब आगे की योजना बनानी है जिसके प्रस्ताव क्रमशः वाराणसी, दरभंगा, सिंगरौली, इंदौर, और हैदराबाद से दिए जायेंगे। इन पर चर्चा व फैसले लोकविद्या जन आन्दोलन की संयोजन समिति करेगी। 
सिंगरौली, वाराणसी और इंदौर में लोकविद्या आश्रम शुरू हो गए हैं। अनूपपुर  और दरभंगा में  जल्दी ही शुरू होने की उम्मीद है। 
लोकविद्या ताना-बाना पर  बहस एक साल से हो रही है। इस बैठक में इसे बनाने की शुरुआत करनी है। बैठक में इस विषय के लिए 24 फरवरी का पूरा दिन रखा गया है। 
लोकविद्या दर्शन पर व्यापक बहस संगठित करने  को एक कार्य के रूप में लेने की बात है। 
शोध व अनुवाद के जरिये लोकविद्या का सामाजिक व आर्थिक पक्ष मज़बूत करना तथा इन कार्यों के मार्फ़त पैसा जुटाना, दोनों की ही ज़रूरत है। 
ज्ञान के विभिन्न प्रकार शिक्षा की दुनिया में शामिल होने से उन सब लोगों को शिक्षा से बहुत कुछ मिलने लगेगा जो आज वहां से कुछ नहीं पा रहे हैं। इस दृष्टि से भाईचारा विद्यालय चलाये जाते रहे हैं। आगे की योजना बननी  है। 
बात फ़ैलाने के लिए , स्पष्ट वक्तव्य के लिए और बहस के लिए पुस्तिकाओं व पत्रिकाओं के प्रकाशन किये जाते रहे हैं। इन्टरनेट पर वेब साईट और ब्लाग आदि का माध्यम अपनाया गया है। इनके संयोजन पर आगे की बात होनी है। 
हमें आशा है की इस बैठक से विद्या आश्रम अपने अगले चरण में प्रवेश करेगा जिसकी तैयारी लोकविद्या जन आन्दोलन की शुरुआत से ही चल रही है।

विद्या आश्रम 
वाराणसी