Yesterday, a group of people came together under BookPort's intative to share thoughts on relevance of readings of Gandhi in the present.
Dr.Nizar Ahmed: The notion of reading had an edifying nature in its modern sense. Reading was meant for self development and self enlightenment. In order to reach majority from minority, as Kant described it. Classical reading was different.there one read scripts reverently, repeating it without knowing meaning.Then reading only indicated that you belong to a tradition.Contemporary reading is different from both these traditions. It is neither ritualistic, nor edifying.Whether it be Gandhi, geeta or Bible, the reading now is not ritualistic.It has got a new dimention.In a technical sense, while reading a text there happens a one - to- one mapping.We actulally suck those things from text with which we can identify. Gandhi himself was constructed as modern subject through certain readings .He was partly formed through reading Ruskin.He was seeking confirmation for certain positions in Ruskin.Not that Ruskin showed him someting new. While we take Gandhi as a text, his actions are also included, drawing on paul Ricoeur's notion, "actions are text as well". His writings and interventins for four decades were purposive, informed by and influenced by the struggles.The other who mattered over and above every others to him was state.His view of state and approach toward the opponent in struggles demand close consideration. There ofcourse were conflicts, contradictions and inconsistencies in his life and positions. pointing this out have no significance in itself, as everybody's life is inconsistent. One among the contradictions was his simultaneous upholding of communitarian and liberal standpoints. Against state he tried to protect community life.On another level he stood for individual rights confronting both community and state. Was he aware of the conflict between these two uncompromising positions? We may try to find out a solution to this problem through reading his texts. take his notion of Satyagraha.Its literal meaning is, clinging to one's position.Gandhian model of individualisation is mediated by the concept of satyagraha. Thus he was a cripto-communitarian and cripto-liberal. Why Gandhi is not a liberal?Its answer could be found in the lifeworld of that period. State was the arbitrator / umpire of public justifications then.As an anrchist Gandhi didn't conceive a state. In the social world conceived by him, major moving principle and force of social organisation is Satyagraha.Every individual has to resolve the problem.Whatever be the other ( state, individual or community), we will never find a reification of any of those terms in Gandhi.All others are subject to negotiations. the following are some problems we come across while reading gandhi today. 1.Is Satyagraha a solution when state undergoes radical transformations under neoliberal economic changes? Gandhi's specialisation was in struggles and he encountered state as the dominant adversary.Today people face corporates as well as state in struggles. 2.What will be gandhi's answers to questins on public debate today?Public justification of one's political programmes is the most important priciple in a world where liberal ddemocracy has become commonsense.Actually all debates are interest--national, market , individual as well as communitarian-- based. S.Gopalakrishnan,T.V.Madhu and Damodar Prasad presented papers(Hope Prasad will summarise the points he presented.) . K K Baburaj,K P Sethunath, N P Johnson and Devarajan tokk part in discussions. Dileep R I thuravoor --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Green Youth Movement" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/greenyouth?hl=en-GB -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
