tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338007918823710198.post5138041869644468770..comments2023-07-26T16:09:24.741+05:30Comments on Lokavidya Jan Andolan (LJA)<br>लोकविद्या जन आन्दोलन: LJA: Quest for Civilization?Vidya Ashramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02683679935172546020noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338007918823710198.post-7330161366647412882013-04-20T09:54:34.457+05:302013-04-20T09:54:34.457+05:30It can be argued from the position of right to equ...It can be argued from the position of right to equality but it need not be so. The argument more fundamentally invokes the idea of well being for all. Pay Commissions periodically decide the base level of well being and that is income and security at the lowest level of employment in government.<br />The skills and knowledge in the lokavidya world are always utilized, for that is the only way available for them to survive. We are not asking for share in the market. The peasants, artisans, adivasis and women know how to make and do things which generally does not include competencies to handle the contemporary market. They must have regular ensured income on the basis of what they are already doing. Train them as you wish but after ensuring the income. <br />All resources are eventually expressible today in terms of money. The base level of resources that are rightfully due to us are decided periodically by the Pay Commissions constituted of high experts and appointed by the government of India. The concepts of our mental and physical capabilities finding expression leading to a dignified life are meaningful and illuminating but not part of the essential argument and if at all deemed so, they would be part of the bases invoked by the Pay Commission.<br />The concept of 'remaining of the art...' etc. is problematic to say the least. Lokavidya renews and regenerates itself daily based on the needs, experiences, values and genius of the lokavidyadhar samaj. The university likes to see it in decay but we see it in struggle against heavy odds. And it is these struggles which are the starting point. <br /><br />SunilSunil Sahasrabudheynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338007918823710198.post-10383341311745096132013-04-16T09:52:40.889+05:302013-04-16T09:52:40.889+05:30‘Right to equality’ can perhaps be the foundation ...‘Right to equality’ can perhaps be the foundation on which the assertion, “ .... regular income to families earning their livelihood on the basis of lokavidya and this income not to be less than the incomes of the government employees” can be based and further discussed and expounded . Having said that, two situations arise in this context: 1) we are asking that the government of the day ensure it; within this is it to be implicitly understood that whether our skills are being utilized or not; the incomes should be ensured by the government, or, are we asking for legitimate share in the markets for our produce and that the insurance would be the salary of the government employees, under the worst case scenario, and 2) we are saying that we have as much claim over the resources available in our land/country as any other entrepreneur class has and therefore the resources be earmarked for our requirements along with all the facilitating logistics so that our mental and physical capabilities can find expression leading to our dignified living. <br />If we are envisaging evolution of post modern civilization (nobody can define it in all its totality at any point of time) the starting point, perhaps, can be whatever is remaining of the art, science, culture, dharm, etc., etc., of the Lokavidhyadhar Samaj. As it evolves, it may end up synthesising old with new, or it may come up with altogether new definitions and parameters for dynamics of life. So the question is: what is the starting point? May be that we need to question the very relevance of the Constitution of India in context of the gross inequalities that are so visible to day. <br />Lalit K Kaulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13278071700982199449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1338007918823710198.post-82742915437532240732013-04-13T11:05:04.681+05:302013-04-13T11:05:04.681+05:30If I understand correctly, after the philosophical...If I understand correctly, after the philosophical take, the general argument about civilization, with which I am in almost entire agreement except some semantic or idiomatic issues, the essential argument tries to combine what policies must be sought from the government/state and what needs to be eventually built. Specifically putting together the need for infra-structure for lokavidya based activities and the requirement of rebuilding the markets under the command of lokavidyadhar samaj. Seeking resources for the infra-structure has been the case for long enough, may not be with a lokavidya argument but broadly along those lines by those who always stood for decentralization. This is broadly part of a politics of change led by ideologies during the industrial age. Lokavidya Jan Andolan(LJA) needs to figure out the next stage of this position significant in the present age.Financial resources have assumed the command without question. LJA has formulated its central concern as regular income to families earning their livelihood on the basis of lokavidya and this income not to be less than the incomes of government employees. The strengths of peasants , artisans and adivasis is not in trade or in handling or building markets. That may be done by those who have the knowledge and experience of doing that. Trying to build our own markets is like ideas of workers running their own industries. These are chimeras to which many a political ideologies have fallen prey. However I do believe that these issues cannot be finally settled by purely theoretical arguments. It is in the context of successes and failures of contemporary strategies of building strengths through struggle and organization that the real worth of such contentions may get evaluated. <br />Asking for regular incomes on the basis of lokavidya seems a very central issue both from the point of view of struggle and reconstruction. When attempted on a societal scale, it ought to be expected to lead to greater self-organization and autonomy. There does not seem to be any other method, true to scale, which can bring back to the villages and the bastis the resources which have been looted away from them right from the beginning of the modern period, the situation continuing in a more and more enhanced state. Swaraj needs to be reconceptualized starting with Gandhi and addressing the contemporary situation. Whatever can possibly be built must be born from the womb of the present society, of course led by the political imaginations. <br /><br />More later<br />SunilSunil Sahasrabudheynoreply@blogger.com