Hyderabad Meet in Brief

Vidya Ashram National Meeting 27-28 Feb. 2011 at Hyderabad.

The Hyderabad Meet of 27-28 Feb. 2011 held at Jeevan Jyothi Retreat House, Begumpet, went of well. As planned the first day was devoted largely to conceptual discussion and the second day to discussing the building of the Lokavidya Jan Andolan. There were some 40 participants on the first day. But some of them could not come for the second day and we had about 30 persons on 28^th. Just to recount, there were participants from Wardha, Nagpur, Pune, Valsad, Varanasi, Singrauli, Delhi, Indore, Bangalore, Bhubaneshwar, Vijaywada, Vishakhapattanam and of course from Hyderabad. We take this opportunity to thank all the participants, particularly those from other organizations like Knowledge In Civil Society, Center For Resource Education, Prayas, Life-HRG, Hyderabad Central University, IIIT etc. Friends from Kolkata could not come but their substantial posts on the blog brought them in. The list of participants is given at the end.

Vidya Ashram was of course happy to have this face to face discussion with persons of capacity and concern on the question of lokavidya and whether and how it can be the main thrust of a people’s knowledge movement. There was general agreement to proceed on the main course being suggested by Vidya Ashram. However, a variety of views came in and there was relatively open discussion on the question of the politics of lokavidya. Philosophical and practical questions often found a blended expression. A report of the meeting is under preparation and should be shortly on this blog.

This post is to express our desire to continue debate on this blog. That a debate be continued was also a consensual thought at the meeting. The broad decisions of the meeting arrived at late on the second day are given below.

Decisions of the Meeting

1. The first conference of Lokavidya Jan Andolan be held in Varanasi in November 2011.

2. Let Lokavidya Ashrams be planned at various places. This may begin where Vidya Ashram associates are active, e.g. Singrauli, Indore, Andhra Pradesh, Vidarbha and Varanasi. In this connection a meeting will be held in Indore in May/June 2011.

3. A lokavidya kala yatra, with sculptures depicting various artisanal and livelihood skills, to be started from Andhra Pradesh and taken to Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.

4. A media and culture initiative to be developed with the Lokavidya Kala Yatra.

5. A Darshan Samiti to be formed with Surendran, Avinash and Suresh in it to start with.

6. A Prakashan Samiti to be formed. Chitra, Girish and Krishnarajulu to coordinate to finalize this committee.

7. Sangathan Samiti and Prastav Samiti formed in the Varanasi Meet in Nov. 2010 to be activated. Prastav Samiti to be headed by Krishnarajulu and the Sangathan Samiti convenorship to remain with Vidya Ashram, Varanasi.

8. Lokavidya Panchayat periodical to be continued and publications in Telugu and Marathi to be planned.

9. Lokavidya Jan Andolan blog to be continued for debate on practical, political and philosophical issues.

10. The lokavidya activists must keep going to the people for work and with responsibility. To do active work in and to be connected with people’s organizations is the chief path.

List of participants

1. Krishnarajulu kkbandi@gmail.com

2. Naresh Sharma na.ku.sharma@gmail.com

3. Abhijit Mitra abi_chem@iiit.ac.in

4. Mohan Rao rcjs_hl@yahoo.co.in

5. L.K. Kaul lily_kaul@gmail.com

6. C.N.Srinivasan srinivasancn@rediffmail.com

7. I.V. Rao ivaturi48@yahoo.com

8. T.Narayan Rao tnrkondinyasa@yahoo.com

9. A.Appa Rao 9912378300

10. D.V. Nageswara Rao 9441682106

11. S.G. Kulkarni sgkhcu@gmail.com

12. P.R.K. Rao prkrao@iiit.ac.in

13. Keshav Rao Jadhav

14. Rajeev Sangal sangal@iiit.ac.in

15. Nisha Sangal

16. Pranav pranav.vasishta@gmail.com

17. M.V. Sastri sastrimv@gmail.com

18. Shambhu Prasad shambu@ximb.ac.in

19. Sreekumar sreekumar@prayaspune.org

20. Ch.Bhagirath bhgrth11@gmail.com

21. Prakash Vinjamuri lifehrg@gmail.com

22. Narsing Rao nrvanapalli@gmail.com

23. B.V.Subbarao creind@gmail.com

24. D.Vasanth Kumar vkd9@yahoo.co.in 9849831315

25. Avinash Jha kalisaroj@gmail.com

26. Nand Kishore Acharya 09413381045

27. J.K. Suresh jksuresh60@gmail.com

28. G.S.R.Krishnan gsivatsa@gmail.com

29. Sunil Chabda 09427142610

30. K.K. Surendran k.k.surendran@gmail.com

31. Girish Sahasrabudhey irigleen@gmail.com

32. Vijay Jawandhia shetsangh@rediffmail.co

33. Sanjeev Kirtane sanjeev.kirtane48@gmail.com

34. Ritesh Mahadik ritesh.mahadik13@gmail.com

35. Uppesh Kumar

36. Kamalakar Nagar 09617240020

37. Satish Sonkar sonkar007@gmail.com

38. Magansingh Bathel 08085213714

39. Awadhesh Dwivedi 09425013524

40. Ashok Rastogi akr0700@mail.jnu.ac

41. Sunil Sahasrabudhey budhey@gmail.com

42. Chitra Sahasrabudhey vidyaashram@gmail.com

Search for a sound political philosophy ?

The posting of Feb 18,02.14 AM, "LOKAVIDYA JAN ANDOLAN AND/OR GYAN MUKTI?", fairly accurately captures our collective mind at the end of its tether in dealing with the complex problem of 'What then must we do?'. M.K.Gandhi's solution:

"Be the change you want to see in the world"

ignores 'two' factors, our limited capacity and the recalcitrant nature of the world, identified by Rosseau long ago:

"The flaws which make social institutions necessary are the same as the abuse of them unavoidable".

If,as I am inclined to believe, our Sysiphus-like condition is inevitable, I find the suggestion, "Perhaps the idea of a lokavidya andolan is search for a sound political philosophy which is able to stir the imagination of all those who find contemporary versions of 'The way of Tradition' and 'the way of Modernity' not very attractive or life-enhancing" appealing.Perhaps it can also help identify the half-truths in the various postings.Even more importantly, it may suggest a way out of the performative paradoxes of our (1) communitarian (2) universalist and (3)post-modernist political philosophies.


prkrao

Response from Shamik Sarkar and Jiten Nandi from Kolkata

For several years now the concept of `lokavidya' has been developed by Varanasi ashram and associated people. We are summarizing the concept below, as we understand it :

1) Human social existence compels it to acquire knowledge for its own sake, and the knowledge evolves from social interaction and human interaction with nature. Lokavidya is this fundamental form of knowledge.

2) This fundamental knowledge form never ceases to evolve, rather it's continuously evolving, and originating.

3) This knowledge form doesn't have any organisation.

4) Peasant, workers, artisan, street vendors and women are embodiment of this knowledge.

5) A different knowledge form exists also, broadly it can be defined as organised knowledge. Often it is associated and sponsored by State. Capital favours this knowledge form.

6) This organised knowledge form gathers by taking the fundamental knowledge away from it's embodiement, and through subsequent structurisation of it, thereby facilitating the making of knowledge-fetish to the society as a whole. Then it creates its own structured route of evolution.

7) In the process of fetishisation, the embodiement of the fundamental knowledge form is made to believe in this structured knowledge form as the only form of legitimate knowledge in the society.

8) This systematic robing off the embodiement of fundamental knowledge takes a new and perhaps most predatory shape in the form of information and communication technology.

9) The struggle for emancipation of the society as whole from the shackles of its alienated offshoots (State, Capital, Structured knowledge etc.) must put itself into the stream of fundamental knowledge form.

The idea of Lokavidya Jana Andolon is a rather new one and it is a process of reckoning for the embodiement of fundamental knowledge form about its own, in term of knowledge.

Our observations

a) The concept of Lokavidya, as we perceived, is very important.

b) Lokavidya remains there amidst the embodiment of it. It is the only knowledge form by which large part of human society, particularly societies in our countries, survive.

c) A very large part of humanity, embodiment of fundamental knowledge form, is continuously rejecting organised knowledge forms like religious, scientific etc. The rejection is not a vocal/propagandist one, but a silent refusal to follow and grasp the organised knowledge forms. This refusal is not a conscious one, but from the perception of practicality. Organised knowledge forms are not practically relevant at the level of a petit human being with very little or no means of livelihood, who is trying to survive with social interactions and interaction with nature.

d) Soft database technology is the latest idea of organisation of knowledge. Earlier form, the scientific form took `why' and `how' out of context of fundamental knowledge stream, overblown it, and shaped the organisation. The new idea takes `how' and `what' out of Lokavidya, puts extra-relevance upon it, and is intending to shape a knowledge organisation. The aim of the sponsors of it is very similar to that of the earlier organised knowledge forms, to put forth a knowledge-fetish before the society.

e) Like all other knowledge organisations, this new one is also proving to be incapable to be practically useful for the large part of humanity, may be the absolute majority. Despite all out effort of Capital and State to make it work, it is a large failure till now. Despite everything is perceived as `good' for years what a Mobile phone can deliver, mobile connection is not available to the majority of our countrymen till now (and it's already showing its limit. The switching to 3G from simple phone would hamper mobile's expansion, would facilitate consolidation). And not to forget the fact that people use mobile as a mere mean of broader social interactions, and refuse to consider it as an instrument of knowledge fetish.

f) There is always an effort by the human social existence to make the organised knowledge form a part of fundamental knowledge stream. Often this is done by transforming the purpose of the pieces of an organised knowledge.

g) There is also an effort by human social existence to make the organised knowledge form a knowledge-fetish to the society as a whole. Most of the people who are engaged in that knowledge organisation favour this.

h) Formation of social knowledge-fetish is sponsored by capital, state, and the populace who are survived by other people's social and natural interactions, i.e., labour.

i) In our days, the knowledge fetish has got a new social proponent, which is corporate and elite social existence.

j) It is better to chalk out a strategy/process for the elite and corporate social existence, and not for the social embodiment of fundamental knowledge form.

k) Peasants, adivasis, workers, artisans, pavement retailers and their families (the lokavidyadhar samaj) constitute the informal social existence. It exists side by side of the formal social existence or State. It uses the formal society and associated elite organised knowledge system for its exsistence and creates the stream of fundamental knowledge which is subsequently used by the formal society. People are always `conscious' about their own `knowledge', in their ways. It is the knowledge-fetish, like every fetish, always puts itself as a shackle. So it is not the question of consciosness or claim, but to liberate themselves from the shackle of fetish. It is a matter of long-term struggle/job, not a matter of short-term movement. The mass movements in short-term (even revolutions) may only contribute to this process. We are saying this from our observation of the history of humanity.

l) The strategy/process for the elite social existence must include the deconstruction of knowledge-fetish, the recognition of Lokavidya as fundamental form of knowledge, the dissolution of organised knowledge form into that fundamental form of knowledge. There is a need for reckoning of the elite social existence about its own historical limitation, and destabilize itself.

Agenda Hyderabad Meet 27-28 Feb 2011

Given below is a scheme of the agenda for the meeting on 27-28 Feb. 2011. Filling up the details and also alterations on suggestions from you will go on. However this gives an idea of how and on what themes we are planning to structure the meeting, therefore you may start concentrating on where you come in, in a major way, of course scope for participation generally where ever you desire would always be there.

Also please find the venue details given again below. Outstation participants who want a place to stay may please inform Krishnarajulu immediately.

Proposed Agenda

27th Feb 2011

11:00.-11:30 Welcome, introduction of participants and finalizing the method of participation and discussion

11:30 -1:00 The idea of Lokavidya Jan Andolan
1:00- 2:00 Lunch
2:00- 3:30 Relation between alternatives and Lokavidya

3.30 -3.45 Tea
3:45-5:00 People’s knowledge organizations
5:00- 6:00 Open house-General discussion

28th Feb 2011

10:00-1:00 Building the Lokavidya Jan Andolan
1:00-2:00 Lunch
2:00-4:00 Panel discussion- Is there a politics of lokavidya?
4:00-4:30 Tea
4:30-5:30 Concluding session

The venue of the Vidya Ashram national Meet (27th-28th February 2011) is

Jeevan Jyothi Retreat Home
Street No.2 , Chikoti Gardens
(Lane Opp Shoppers Stop,adjacent to Bus Stop shelter)
Begumpet, Hyderabad 500016
Ph: 040-27762354
email: jeevanjyothi.rh@gmail.com

The venue is about 6 Kms from Secunderabad station and about 2 Kms from Begumpet station and easily reachable by auto.On entering the lane opposite Shoppers stop i.e Street No.2 Chikoti Gardens, proceed to the end of the street and take a short right turn to reach Jeevan Jyothi Retreat House.

Accomodation is available for outstation participants (for about 20+ persons) at the place and has been booked for 27th and 28th( you can plan to reach on 26th night/27th morning and leave on 28th night/1st morning). Please inform me asap if you need accomodation at the venue. Breakfast , lunch, tea and dinner will be provided at the venue.

Sunil Sahasrabudhey

Further on the "andolan" aspect of LJA

A few more comments, part in response to the other posts and comments.
Amit

1. There is relatively greater clarity on what lokaidya is, its location, its relations with other knowledges, its history, its connection with Gandhi.
2. There is much less clarity and also some discomfort with the idea of a lokavidya andolan.
3. One source of discomfort is to do with the charge of elitism that may be leveled against university-educated folk who want to organize a lokavidya andolan. This is related to the issue brought up by Asokeji when he alludes to the contradiction between using cell phones and extolling adivasi lifestyles.
4. Here the response is simply that leadership and initiative of the LJA in fact cannot come from the university-educated. We are bringing the concept and issue into the public domain, not as leaders of a new agitation, but as interpreters and facilitators.
5. Several people have brought up the issue of the relation between LJA and Gandhi. There is one important difference between khadi and swadeshi etc on the one hand and LJA on the other hand. What is latent/implicit in khadi is overt/explicit in LJA, viz. the idea that this is a struggle over knowledge.
6. So the concrete struggles, be they against displacement, or for forest rights or whatever, don't suddenly change. But we see them differently. We see them as knowledge struggles.
7. The LJA can thus be the confluence of already existing andolans who see that it in in their advantage to cast their struggles also as knowledge struggles.
8. This is not only a matter of perspective. Class struggle derives a new potency from the theory of class exploitation. Gender struggles derive new strength when they become conscious of themselves as such. In both cases self-consciousness brings new allies also.
9. LJA is the people's movement that gains consciousness as a knowledge movement because it sees that without bringing knowledge into debate, the battle in only half fought.
10. The idea of gyan mukti, knowledge liberation, seems to be in tune with the times. The recent meeting of university activists called in Paris by Edu-Factory, has resulted in the formation of a group called the Knowledge Liberation Front.
10. Finally, we may also want to reflect on what the Arab revolts mean for us. Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Jordan and Bahrain show that civil disobedience and non-violent non-cooperation are not only 20th Century ideas. They carry potency today. Despite the dominant trend in the western media to interpret these as struggles for greater Western-style democracy, in fact the implications with regard to the new organization of society which may emerge, are not clear yet.

Amit Basole