A Brief Report
One-day seminar on
“Reformulating Mahatma Gandhi's Philosophy: Non-Violence,
Modernity and Postcoloniality”
Organized by
The International Programme Committee
&
The Gandhian Studies Centre
25 August 2012
The
International
Programme
Committee
of
Smt.
Chandibai
Himathmal
Mansukhani
College,
Ulhasnagar in collaboration with the UGC
sponsored Gandhian Studies Centre
organized a one day seminar on
“Reformulating Mahatma Gandhi's
Philosophy: Non- Violence, Modernity
and Postcoloniality” on 25 August 2012.
Eminent Gandhian Scholar of international
repute Prof. Douglas Allen of University
of Maine (USA), Prof. Prafulla. C. Kar,
distinguished international scholar of
English Literature, & Director, Centre for Contemporary Theory, Baroda and Prof. Siby George,
Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy, IIT Bombay, were the speakers.
Dignitaries on the Dais (from Right) Prof. Prafulla Kar,
Prof. Douglas Allen, Principal Dr. (Mrs.) Bhavna Motwani,
Prof. Ashwini Gokhale
The seminar was designed to look at
• Gandhi’s idea of nonviolence and its contemporary significance.
• Locating Gandhi in the context of the present and add new instances to his critique of
modernity.
• Why Gandhi’s notion of self-rule and nonviolent resistance, his critique of modernity are
ignored in post-colonial theorizing today.
1 The seminar was inaugurated by lighting the lamp
at Ama’s statue. The programme started with a
brief introductory remark by Prof Hitasha Rohra,
Coordinator of the seminar Dr. (Mrs) Bhavna
Motwani, the Principal of the college in her
welcome speech pinpointed the need for such
programmes with specific focus on the need of
Gandhian values in today’s world. She marked the
beginning with a distinct emphasis on the virtues of
‘forgiveness’ and the potential it has in creating
goodwill and empathy in the society at large.
Gandhi to her is a way of life which is painfully
Principal Dr. Bhavna Motwani
eluding the social fabric of today amidst the
challenges and chaos of the modern day world.
Prof Ashwini Gokhale, Vice Principal and the over-all
in-charge of IPC took the opportunity to apprise the
audience of the values and objectives the college is
trying to drive through the Gandhian Studies Centre
and the International Programme Committee. The
inculcation of the right values and repetitive exposure to
scholars and academicians of international repute are
equally important as the university curricula and the
college is trying to attach undiluted focus to this holistic
approach – this was the key focus of Prof Gokhale’s
Prof. Ashwini Gokhale
brief message. Dr. Deepa Mishra, Chairperson of the
IPC, detailed out the primary objectives of the seminar. She said that this seminar is an effort to
appraise the relevance of Gandhi in a fresh way. She started
with the questions - Is it possible to be a Gandhian? How to
understand Gandhi? She then informed the audience that the
key focus of each speaker would be to interpret and evaluate
what is most significant in Gandhian philosophy and in what
way Gandhi’s philosophy is relevant to us. She also
highlighted the importance of the topic chosen for the
seminar in the recent national and global context.
This one day seminar was a collaborative effort by eminent
Gandhian scholars and participants interested in Gandhian
studies to understand and discuss the relevance of Gandhi in
the 21st century. The seminar began on a promising note with
Prof. Douglas Allen
the keynote address by Prof Douglas Allen on
"Reformulating Mahatma's Gandhi' Philosophy of Nonviolence: Living a more Motivated, Productive, Happier Life of Value and Meaning in today’s
World". Prof Allen’s keynote was a highly engaging and thought-provoking address. He outlined
2 Gandhi’s views on the nature of violence and
nonviolence. He spoke on how Gandhi served as
a catalyst in challenging us to rethink our views
of violence and nonviolence; how Gandhi
devoted considerable attention to identifying the
nature of violence, trying diverse approaches to
provide nonviolent alternatives. For Gandhi
such serious overt violence constitutes only a
small part of the violence that must be addressed
by education. He said that educational violence
cannot be separated from linguistic, economic,
psychological, cultural, political, religious, and
other form of violence. These many dimensions of violence interact, mutually reinforce each other,
and provide the subject matter and challenge for education in the 21st century. While talking about
reformulating Gandhian philosophy he reiterated the fact that “A philosophy of violence and
nonviolence without the full Gandhian sense of education is unengaged, not transformative, and
ineffective. In short, there is no philosophy of violence and non-violence without education”.
Relating Gandhian values with education he emphasized that in Gandhian philosophy, institutions
that did not have peace education as their central mission were not proper educational institutions;
students who had not been educated to embrace peace education were, in the full and deepest sense,
uneducated and are educational failures.
Delegates interacting with Prof. Allen
Prof Prafulla Kar in his talk “Gandhi and
Fanon:
On
Nationalism
and
Decolonisation” by bringing out a parallel
between Gandhi and Fanon, both of whom
dedicated their lives to social and political
movements against colonialism, explained
how violence is conceptualized in two
predominant ways by Fanon and Gandhi.
His talk highlighted Gandhi’s idea of
nationalism and compared it with Fanon’s
account of nationalism. Both the sessions
were chaired by Dr Charanjeet Kaur,
Head, Department of English, Smt. CHM College.
3 Prof. Prafulla C Kar
The post lunch session started with the talk by
Prof Siby K. George. The session was
chaired by Prof Urmila Pillay, Associate
Professor, Dept. of Mathematics. His talk
“Gandhi and the Development Discourse
Today” centered around - ‘What does
Gandhi bring to the Development Discourse
of today?’According to Prof George, Gandhi
brings to development discourse what the
philosopher Paul Ricoeur called ‘the
hermeneutics of suspicion’. Gandhi tears into
the condescending, patronizing, pedagogical
mission of the colonizer, and casts a profound
suspicion on that discourse by, in Ricoeur’s
words, “a tearing off of masks, an interpretation that reduces disguises”. The talk highlighted how
Gandhi achieved this task with ease, and how
the essential message of this task has
relevance today for us in India and for people
across the world, if – and this ‘if’ is very
important – we are willing not to be lost
amidst his linguistic, metaphoric gestures and
look at the text of his life, work and writings
in their complementariness and in their
aliveness for us today.
Prof. Siby K. George
The lectures and interactions by speakers and
participants took up all these issues and the
A section of the audience
day was very engaging and thought
provoking. The penultimate session of the workshop was scheduled as an interaction session. The
participants asked several insightful questions on the issues of violence, nonviolence and
development. Prof Douglas Allen, Prof Prafulla Kar and Prof Siby George answered many of them
with examples and illustrations. The participants not only interacted with the resource persons but
also presented their views and suggestions to the audience in this session. The seminar was formally
concluded with a formal Vote of thanks by Dr Kavita Harisinghani.
Dr. Deepa Mishra
Chairperson,IPC
Prof. Urmila Pillay
Director,GSC
4 Dr Dipesh Karmarkar
Member,IPC