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
