Faisal Devji – Gandhi and his Speechless Politics

-

 


The Department of History, Kirori Mal College in collaboration with the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) organised a series of webinars upon the theme – The Relevance of Mahatma Gandhi in the 21st Century : Philosophies, Political ideas and Socio-Spiritual Dimensions from the 2nd to the 7th of October, 2020.

The 3rd day of this webinar series was graced by Prof. Faisal Devji. Devji's multidisciplinary work grounds empirical historical issues in philosophical questions. He has taught at The New School in New York City as well as at Yale University. Since 2009, Devji is University Reader in Modern South Asian History, Oxford University. He also is a senior fellow at the Institute for Public Knowledge (New York University) and Yves Oltramar Chair at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. He published The Impossible Indian: Gandhi and the Temptations of Violence, by Hurst & Co. in March 2011. Professor Devji talked in detail about Gandhi’s SpeechlessPolitics and shared his valuable insights into the same with the audience.

He began his lecture by tracing Gandhi’s views upon the freedom and integrity of voice, speech and deliberation through his very own manifesto – Hind Swaraj. It was through the analysis of Gandhi’s own work that Prof. Devji went on to understand his recourse to silent politics. He vividly talked about how Gandhi’s silence is often interpreted in a religious way and attempted to understand the same through a political lens in the given historical context. Towards the end of the lecture, Prof. Devji went on to quote Gandhi from his autobiography, thus ending his talk on a very insightful note.

His lecture was followed by a very intriguing QnA sessions with the audience. Prof. Devji’s profuse knowledge upon the subject was received and appreciated very well by the audience and the event thus ended on a very positive and fulfilling note.

 -

Author:

Shambhavi Jha
Second Year, History Hon. KMC

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

College And Pandemic

-
Image
It had started raining so I sat down with a cup of tea to relax after being done with all my hectic online classes. My head was aching of continuous staring at the computer screen along with an incessant back pain due to sitting uncomfortably for five hours taking lectures and making notes. That has been every student’s life lately since online classes have started. In that moment, it all seemed almost unbearable for me, so I just closed my eyes to let it all sink in.  I couldn’t help but think about our last day at college before the outbreak of covid-19 and the events that followed thereafter.   Mid-sem break was around the corner and I was pretty much excited to be leaving for home that day. I had my entire semester planned out and was eagerly waiting for the events of even semester to unfold. Well, along with the even semester comes the excitement and thrill of witnessing the famous Delhi University fests. ( I’d be lying if I say that fests were not one of the reasons...
Read more

Was It All Okay?

-
Image
Everybody asks how is Barani, nobody asks how are you? So, how are you? Were you okay? Was it all okay and insane this entire lockdown period? Is it just the GDP or your mood too, which went down? Did you feel that nothing is right? Did you miss somebody? Did you cry all alone? Was it really so hard to express? Did you fight? Did you scream? Was it really so hard to get up from the bed?  Did you just lie on the bed whole day long? Did you tell everybody you have nothing to wear and nothing to read thus, its not your fault that you don't feel good and lie on bed the entire day? Is it really about the clothes and the books? Come on! you wear the same two-three t-shirts and you hardly study!  Do you miss college? I do. Do you miss meeting you friends? You really miss that cute sense of freedom where you could do anything without explaining your parents, don't you? Do you feel burdened with thoughts?  Do you end up overthinking all the time? Did you fight with your parents? D...
Read more

Stories of A Drowning World

-
Image
  Introduction “God ordered his man to build an ark big enough to accommodate a pair of all the animals of this world along with his wife, because the flood was coming.” This story may feel familiar not only to you but millions of people of different religions and civilizations. The story of a ‘flood’ that wiped out the entire humanity could be heard in every part of this world although with some regional variations. The variation could be seen best in the difference of names of the ‘man’ ranging from Noah to Manu and many more. These stories are in existence from centuries and have a vast history. But the stories are not free from questions of scholars, theologians, geologists, historians, and even atheist. Why almost every ancient civilization mentions about flood? Are these stories just myth? Which story is the truest? How did these stories come into existence? And most importantly, was there any such flood? Answering these questions is difficult but not impossible. A revisi...
Read more