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Winter School, Seminars and Workshops Winter School on Classroom Introduction to Philosophy Understanding
the nature of Reality, Knowledge, and Value, 30 December 2008
to 10 January 2009, at IIT Guwahati Workshop on National Integration and Identity-Violence, 20-23 March 2009, at Shillong More.... Seminar on The Construction of the Idea of Evil, 31 March-1 April 2009, at Kohima More.... LECTURES BY VISITING PROFESSORS Classroom Introduction to Philosophy Understanding the nature of Reality, Knowledge, and Value Indian Institute of Advanced Study, (IIAS) in collaboration with Indian Institute of Technology, (IIT) Guwahati organized a "Winter School in Philosophy" from 30 December 2008 to 10 January 2009. The aim of this School was to introduce the discussion on philosophy in the classroom to the young teachers and researchers working in different colleges and universities in clear and cogent terms, through effective and innovative methods. Resource persons from various universities addressed these participants on different areas of philosophy with the aim of conceptual clarification of diverse philosophical issues and also attempting some innovative methods in the teaching of philosophy. The
inaugural session of the Winter School was presided over by
Professor A. Srinivasan, Dean of Administration, IIT, Guwahati.
Professor Archana Barua, Head of the Department of Humanities
and Social Sciences, IIT Guwahati welcomed the guests and outlined
the objective of the programme. Delivering the concept note,
Dr. V. Prabhu explained the need and necessity of the Winter
School. He recollected his experiences of introducing philosophy
to his students and said how difficult it is to introduce philosophy
as a subject as the nature of discourse is quite different from
other disciplines. He was referring to a thematic introduction
of the subject on its core areas like epistemology, metaphysics
and axiology for a better grasp of the subject. He was suggesting
that perhaps introducing philosophy in the thematic way could
be a better way of introducing the subject to the students than
adopting merely a historical method. He further added that the
students' interests in the philosophical problems could be kindled
by making the learner understand the basis of the philosophical
questions posed by the thinkers. He also outlined the expected
outcome of the School that it should make the participants to
conceptualize the philosophical issues, which will also help
the participants to understand the rationale behind the philosophical
questions, which the participants in turn could teach to their
students. The School will also focus on learning methods and
how to conceptualize the philosophical issues. This was followed
by the Chief
Guest's address, which appreciated the concept of organizing
"Winter School in Philosophy". Speaking on The inaugural session was followed by regular academic sessions. The objective of the School was to aid teachers and young research scholars in the classroom introduction of philosophy. The resource persons with expertise in different areas of philosophy were from the institutions of higher learning such as University of Hyderabad, Jadavpur University, North Bengal University, Rabindra Bharathi University, Viswa-Bharati University etc. The target audience was a group of twenty-three students/participants from across the country, consisting of younger college/university teachers and researchers. The sessions were interactive, which provided not only the theoretical and conceptual inputs but also gave pedagogical guidance to the participants during the teaching-learning process. The
resource person for the first session was Professor Amita Chatterjee
(Jadavpur University). In the initial phase of her class, she
addressed a few pedagogical problems. She observed that philosophy
could not be taught through lectures; therefore, teaching of
philosophy should not be information based on purely historical
information rather one can learn philosophy by doing philosophy.
She summarized that the role of teacher is changed from packager
of knowledge to the facilitator of learning. In the subsequent
lectures, she tryied to make the participants understand the
different schools of thought like physicalism, materialism,
vitalism, naturalism, spiritualism, etc. by giving different
work sheets through power point presentations and making them
get clarity with the different schools of thought. In the later
part of her lectures, she was discussing the primary and secondary
qualities with interactions from participants through analysis
of arguments and examples.
Dr. Proyash Sarkar (Jadavpur University) delved deep in the Indian epistemology, particularly Nyaya school of thought. His concern was how to approach traditional schools of thought with respect to epistemology. He was concentrating more on how one can adopt a methodology in philosophical research particularly with respect to traditional knowledge, i.e, Nyaya philosophy. His attempt was to position Nyaya epistemology in the present day concerns of western epistemology and try to get responses from Nyaya's position with respect to epistemological questions. He also gave a comparative account of other traditions of Indian epistemology like Mimamsakas, and Buddhists related to the theory of knowledge.
Dr. Saurav Pran Goswami (Guwahati University) spoke on logic.
He traveled through the historical development of logic from
traditional logic to modern symbolic logic. There was a healthy
discussion when he was elaborating some of the language utterances
in symbols. Professor
Archana Barua (IIT Guwahati) gave lectures on phenomenology.
The lectures were designed to create interest among participants
in some basic themes of phenomenology centering primarily a
round the teachings of Husserl and Heidegger. It evoked interest
among participants especially the comparison of some basic themes
of Husserlian phenomenology such as Epohé, Reduction, Transcendental
Subjectivity etc. with the familiar concepts from Indian philosophy
like Maya, Atman, Brahman etc. and the lectures finally culminated
in some basic terms introduced by Martin Heidegger, such as
Da-sein, Being-with, being in the world etc. Some handouts and
study materials were also distributed to the participants.
Professor Gautam Biswas (Assam University) delivered lectures
on Hermenutics. He said that the origin of the term hermeneutics
could be traced back to the period of Aristotle. Aristotle actually
used the word perihermeneus. By this term, he meant logic of
statement. By 6th century, hermeneutics had emerged as a separate
discipline. The etymological meaning of hermeneutics is interpreting
or concerned with interpretation. Hermes was a messenger of
gods and knew the languages of the both god and men. Hermeneutics
thus can be defined as how to transpose or interpret the ideas
of one to the ideas of the other. For better understanding of
the discipline, he divided hermeneutics into three branches
- hermeneutic theories, philosophy of hermeneutics and critical
hermeneutics. He also gave the background of the hermeneutic
circle as visualized by Hans George Gadamer for projective interpretation.
He also explained the concept of regressive enquiry as proposed
by Edmund Husserl.
Indian Institute of Advanced Study organized a Seminar on The Dynamics of Culture, Society, and Identity: Emerging Literatures of Northeast India in collaboration with Department of English, Mizoram University and ICSSR-NER Shillong in Aizal on 10-11 March 2009. The
Inaugural Function of the Seminar began with welcome address
by Professor Margaret Ch. Zama, After
the Inaugural Function, the First Session was chaired by Professor
Tilottoma Misra. During this session four papers were presented.
The first paper, “The Phawar in Context: The Politics of Tradition
and Continuity in Khasi Oral Tradition” by Dr. Desmond Kharmawphlang
highlighted the significance of the Phawar in the Khasi community,
which is an integral part of their culture. The Phawar is a
poetic creation, usually of rhymed couplets which is sung during
festivals, community gatherings, hunting and fishing expeditions,
games and archery. Belonging to the folklore genre, it is an
oral tradition which has remained alive through generations,
and is now a written tradition with contemporary relevance.
In the present day, the Phawar is used in political The paper “Beyond Borders and Between the Hills: Recovering Voices and Visions” by Dr. Rakhee Kalita contemplated on a common aspect of North East Literature which is a product of many years of conflict. Referring to recent ethnographic thoughts that stress on the importance of “personal experiences” and “The native’s point of view”, she pointed out that various authoritative writings of the North East by “others” are now being contested by native narratives. The paper examined account two Assamesse novels, Owlingor Jui by Anuraag Mahanta and Jaak Heruwa Pokhi by Rongbong Terang. The first novel is about a small community of the Naga tribes inhabiting the mountainous terrain called the Patkai Hills, between the borders of India and Burma. The second is also about displacement of communities within the nation. This novel is about the predicament of the Kuki tribe as a contesting group for a homeland and identity. The paper “Culture as a Site of Struggle: A Study of Oral Literature of the Bhils Rajasthan” by Dr. Hemendra Chandalia was an informative paper about the Bhil tribe of Rajasthan who constitute 41.39% of the tribal population in Rajasthan, where 12.6% of the population consist of tribals. They are supposed to be good archers and give equal privilege to the girl child. Still without an official language, their literature is mainly in songs of oral tradition. Economic development being individualistic as against the tribal life of collectivism, becomes a counter force. The Bhils are also a contesting group as the indigenous people of Rajasthan. The last paper presented in this session was “Towards Dialectics of New Cultural Landscape and the Ecological Imaginary: Re-imagining Selected Oral Poetry of the North East”, from Dr. S.D. Baral which provided a challenging study of Oral Poetry of the region from new theoretical perspectives. The
second session of the Seminar was chaired by Professor Udayon
Misra. The first paper presented in this session was “Towards
an Appreciative Paradigm for Literature from the North East”
from Dr. Parag Moni Sharma. The paper highlighted the role of
Assamese fiction which depicted many humanistic aspects of peoples
of the North East. The second paper “Religion: A Factor of Cultural Change Among the Ao-Nagas” by Temsurenla Ao was about cultural change and mutation that has taken place during the process of modernization. The paper highlighted several changes in the culture of the Aos brought about through the process of Christianity. Dr. C. Lalrozami in his paper on “Colonialism and its Forms of Knowledge in Lushai talked about the ushering in of colonialism and Christianity into the Lushai Hills, present day Mizoram. The methods which the colonizers used to establish their power in the area still remain a contributing agent in the shaping of contemporary Mizo identity. The last paper presented in this session was “Stigmatised Identity and Alchoholics: Illustrations from Two Short Stories of the North East” by Dr. Kalpana Sarathy. The two short stories mentioned were translated stories entitled Lali by Biakliana and The Jackfruit Tree by Vanneihtluanga. The paper is a psychoanalytical study of stigma, which affects a person’s identity, his self-image and his mental self esteem. The third session of the Seminar was chaired by Professor. K.C. Baral. In his one-hour plenary session, Professor Nirmal Kanti Bhattacharjee presented his paper titled, “Emerging Literatures of the North East: Ambivalence Between the Centre and the Periphery”. The paper noted the emerging role of North East literatures. He notes that 196 languages are dying in our country. Writing in languages which is less used is in danger of perishing unless translations into mainstream languages are done. Also with the emergence of subaltern movements certain amount of consciousness has been evoked. Other parts of India also encounter violence, maybe of a different kind to what the North East is facing, and when a writer writes within a circumstance of violence and terror, the writer remains insular to the circumstance. Professor Bhattacharjee argued that writers have to move towards a grand narrative for the whole nation The second paper presented by Dr. Nilanshu Kumar Agarwal was on “Synthetic Vrs Spontaneous: An Appraisal of North Eastern Sensibility in Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss and Mamang Dai’s River Poems This paper is a study of the synthetic or outside approach as against the natural and spontaneous approach of writers who write from and about their native place Dr. Joseph Bara, in his presentation on “Alien Construct and Tribal Contestation in Colonial Chhotanagpur: The Medium of Christianity” spoke about the tribals of Chhotanagpur and the impact of their conversion to Christianity. The paper was informative and educative, and can be used as a comparative study for the cultural changes that the North Eastern tribes are undergoing as well. The fourth paper was “North East Outside the Newspaper Pages”, presented by Ms Monalisa Changkija. Her presence was like a breath of fresh air, a welcome change to the intense academic papers as it were. She recited a number of her poems which spoke volumes. According to her, as a reporter there are many things that one cannot write in the pages of a newspaper, so she had found another mode of expressing her experiences – through the medium of poetry. The last paper in this session was “Some Petite, Some Powerful - The Cascade of Manipuri Short Stories”, by Tayenjam Bijoykumar Singh. The paper presented a study of Manipuri short stories which has become a popular genre for creative expression in Manipur. The last session of the Seminar was chaired by Professor J.L. Dawar. In his one-hour plenary session Professor D. Venkat Rao gave a power-point presentation of his paper, “Sign Forces of Culture: Reflections on Mnemopraxial Responsibilities”. His talk was delivered with a sensitive approach to the cultures that had faced colonialism, a common phenomenon in India. The next paper, “Locating Trauma in Mizo Literature: Silaimu Ngaihawm (The Beloved Bullet)” was presented by Professor Margaret Ch. Zama. The paper was a study of the recent emergence of “Trauma Theory” and the presence of trauma in the various creative writings of the North East which in many instances are the product of insurgency. The paper was a study of trauma in the Mizo novella Silaimu Ngaihawm written by James Dokhuma. The
third paper “Territory, Identity in the North East: With special
Reference to Mizoram” was presented by Dr. Siva The fourth paper of the session was “Dynamics of Translation Within the Mizo Sensibility” by Dr. Margaret L. Pachuau. The paper was an informative study of translation which is an integral part of Mizo literature and of its exposure to other languages. The last paper on “Hindi Literature and the North East” by Professor Vir Bharat Talwar dwelt on the Hindi novel Jaha Baas Phoolte Hain (Where the Bamboo Flowers) by Shri Prakash Mishra. He showed how Mizoram is viewed from the perspective of the outsider, a retired bureaucrat who once served in Mizoram, and of how the book is an interesting critique of Mizo society. The
National Workshop on “National Integration and Identity-Violence”
was organized by the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla
and the Indian Council of Philosophical Research, New Delhi
at the North Eastern Regional Centre of Indian Council of Social
Science Research, NEHU Campus, Shillong during March 20-23,
2009. The Inaugural Function of the Workshop was held at the
old guest house auditorium and was chaired by Professor Pramod
Tandon, Vice-Chancellor, NEHU, Shillong. Professor Mrinal Miri,
Director of the Workshop welcomed the gathering and gave a thematic
introduction of the Workshop. In his introduction, Professor
Miri dealt with the concept Professor K. Ramakrishna Rao delivered the Keynote Address and spoke on “Identity Violence–Perspectives.” Professor Rao explained the concept of violence by citing a number of cases of recent violent incidents in India with special reference to identity politics. He spoke of group identity and how identity movement leads to identity violence. He also discussed about the implications and ramifications of such violence and their different causes besides dealing with the psychological structure of violence as well as the Gandhian ways of arresting violence. He concluded his speech by pointing out how individual value is efficacious in containing violence at the levels of the individual, group and society. Professor Pramod Tandon in his Presidential Address gave an exposition of the concept of violence and of the different ways in which we can address this problem. The Chief Guest of the function, Shri Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary, His Excellency the Governor of Meghalaya, in his speech gave the causes of identity violence in a pluralistic set up as the one we have in this country. He pointed out the problems at a grass-root level and referred to the fact that unless the economic need of the people are taken care of and equality is inculcated in the people’s minds, violence cannot be meaningfully arrested. Quoting from a large number of contemporary authorities, His Excellency pointed out that there is an urgent need to discuss this problem so that we may be able to address the issues in the different regions of this country ridden with identity violence. The Inaugural Function came to an end with Vote of Thanks proposed by Professor G. Mishra, Member-Secretary, ICPR. The Workshop was topically divided into five sessions. The First Session, held on March 21, 2009, was on “Plurality–Linguistic, Cultural and Religious–and National Identity.” Professor Mrinal Miri chaired this session during which four papers were presented. In this session, the highlights were on pluralism and its effect on identity politics. Professor Gautam Biswas, Professor S.S. Rama Rao Pappu, Dr. Rajesh Dev and Professor Asghar Ali Engineer presented their papers and they evoked a good lot of discussion among the participants. The
broad topic of the Second Session was “Violence, Terrorism and
Threat to National Life.” Professor G. Mishra chaired this
session. Dealing with various aspects of the theme of the session,
Professor The Third Session of the Workshop held on 22 March, 2009 was devoted to “Tribal India” and was chaired by Professor A.C. Bhagbati. Professor Sujata Miri, Professor Ranju Dhamala, Professor Prasenjit Biswas, Professor T. Subba and Professor Udayan Mishra presented their papers discussing various aspects of Tribal India and Identity Politics with special reference to North-Eastern states. The Fourth Session of the Workshop was devoted to discuss “Tagore, Gandhi, Nehru and Ambedkar” and their contribution to the efforts of achieving National Integration. The session was chaired by Professor S.S. Rama Rao Pappu. There were three papers presented by Professor Makrand Paranjape, Professor Bindu Puri and Shri B. Venketeswara Rao. The well-known participants in this session shed light on different aspects of the contemporary thinking concerning National Integration. The Fifth Session of the Workshop held on March 23, 2009 was devoted to “Global Economic Unity and Cultural Autonomy; and Democracy, Individual Freedom and Community Allegiances.” The session was chaired by Dr. B.B. Datta. There were five papers presented by Dr. Sanjeep Kakoti, Dr. Mangi Singh, Dr. Kympham Singh Nongkynreih and Dr. Balakrishnan. On the afternoon of March 23, 2009, the Valedictory Function was held under the Chairmanship of Professor K. Ramakrishna Rao, Chairman, ICPR. Professor Mrinal Miri made a brief summing up of the whole seminar proceedings. It was followed by a Valedictory Address by Shri B. Yugandhar, Member, Planning Commission, Government of India. Shri Yugandhar in his speech spoke about the relevance of this Workshop and appreciated the organizers for holding such deliberations which addressed the current problems of the country. Professor K. Ramakrishna Rao delivered the Presidential Address wherein he spelt out the different projects and programmes of ICPR for promoting philosophy, especially Applied Philosophy. The Workshop came to a successful conclusion with a Vote of Thanks by Professor G. Mishra, Member-Secretary, ICPR. The
seminar was successful in addressing many issues which had arisen
out of the earlier Workshop at IIAS, Shimla with its focus on
the problems of North-Eastern States of the country. Professor
G. Mishra, Member Secretary, ICPR, expressed the hope that this
would be a continuing programme of the ICPR and he further hoped
that along with IIAS the next Workshop would be organized again
in some place in the North East to continue with the in depth
deliberations on National Integration and Violence related issues.
The
Institute organized a Seminar on The Construction of the
Idea of Evil, in collaboration with ICSSR-NERC, at Nagaland
University, Kohima from 31 March to 1 April 2009 The collection of letters exchanged between Sigmund Freud and the pastor, Oskar Pfister, is among the most moving of all Freud’s published letters. For more than anything Psychoanalysis and Faith, as the collection is titled, makes evident in the most subtle and beautiful ways the possibility of dialogue between extremely disparate worlds. So also the seminar on, ‘The Construction of the Idea of Evil,’ brought home overwhelmingly the many ways in which the idea of evil must be engaged with, given the darkness of our times. It ended with Rev. Linus Neli’s haunting plea, ‘We need a secular solution to the Naga problem. We’re tired of the killings.’ When asked by a participant if that was not a contradictory and problematic note to end on, Fr. Neli’s answer was that unless we challenge ourselves to think of ethical spaces/ choices quite different from those we have imagined so far, the horrific spiral of violence in the North East will only get more murky and difficult. The question of location and, relatedly, that of geography, has been an intensely charged one in recent social science debates: Is there a one-on-one correspondence between physical location and the ‘theory’ that emerges from that space? Can ‘Western’ knowledge/paradigms be of relevance to non-Western contexts and so on. While these debates were very much at the heart of most discussions and papers presented at the seminar, its most interesting aspect was that it introduced a whole community of scholars who are not part of the routine academic circuits in India. As is well-known, given the turbulence of the North East it is often not physically possible for Northeastern scholars to travel to other parts of the country. One felt privileged, therefore, to have a chance to listen to points-of –view and share insights with not only senior scholars but also many others whom one might have never met otherwise. Rev. Neli was one such person. There were several others. And this included especially a large company of scholars from religious/ theological backgrounds. The massive presence of the Church in the Northeast and the many strands of Christianity there - from the very orthodox to those committed to versions of ‘liberation theology’ - was fascinating to learn about. Along with the volatile question, is being ‘Christian’ integral to or in opposition of, being ‘Naga?’ The seminar was inaugurated by Dr. J.C.Thomas, Director, ICSSR-NERC. This was followed by comments by Professor Prasenjit Biswas, who laid out the idea behind the seminar and some ways in which ‘tribal’/folk cultures of the Northeast, especially, conceptualise evil. This was followed by the address by the Chief Guest, Professor Gangmumei Kamei, eminent Manipuri historian and then the Guest of Honour, Fr. P.V. Joseph. Professor T.B. Subba, Department of Anthropology, NEHU, was the Chairperson. The seminar itself was structured into three main segments. The first segment had papers that had a theoretical focus. The second segment was on, ‘Tribal Constructions of Evil in the Northeast’ and the third, specific to Nagaland, ‘Naga Discourses on Evil.’ Professor K.C. Baral inaugurated the first section with his paper, “Discourse of Evil in Mizo Folk Imagination.’ Like many other scholars, he made the important point that a ‘folk’ worldview is one which needs to be understood on its own terms as a category in philosophy, literature etc. This was followed by Dr. Biswas’s paper where he further underlined this, with specific reference to Northeastern literatures. For instance the ‘tribal’ understanding of the practice of head-hunting, he pointed out, was quite distinct from that of the colonial state. The troubling questions, then, emerge from the deep continuities in institutions/ the understanding of ‘tribal’ cultures between colonial and post-colonial times. This
was in fact the dominant focus of many papers - how constructions
of ‘evil’ in cultural practices of the Northeast derive from
worldviews that are densely rooted in ‘tribal’/ ‘folk’ worldviews
specific to the region. And how these are quite different from
the more ‘rational’ worldviews of the ‘mainland’. The questions
that naturally followed were, do we then have a separate category
of Northeastern social sciences? Moreover, who decides on the
vexed question of territory? Can the insistence on Northeastern
uniqueness be theoretically sustained? Can it, under many circumstances, A related discussion arose on the troubled status of ‘English’ in India. While English is the state-language of several of the Northeastern states Fr. A. J. Sebastian, for instance, highlighted the fact that even the poetry of Shillong, while beautifully crafted, still quite lacks the passion of the poetry of Nagaland. [A parallel case has been remarked on vis-à-vis Tamil poetry of the mainland and that emerging from Sri Lanka.] How ‘Indian’ is English then? Responding to the by-now commonplace charge that ‘Derrida’ is merely rhetorical extravagance Gayatri Spivak asks in a different context, what is the task of a scrupulous academic? She answers: [I]f, like Derrida and Foucault, you are a scrupulous academic who is largely an academic, you stage the crisis between theory and practice in the practice of your theoretical production in various ways instead of legitimising the polarisation between the academy and the real world by disavowing it, and then producing elegant solutions that will never be tested either in large-scale decision-making or among the disenfranchised.
Workshops, Seminars, Conferences, Meetings, and Summer Schools
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Indian Institute of Advanced Study Rastrapati Niwas Shimla - 171005 Phone No : 91 - 0177 - 2831390 Fax No : 91 - 177 -2831390 E-mail : proiias@iias.org |
Convener
of the Seminar and Head of the Department of English, Mizoram
University. Welcome address was followed by the inaugural address
by His Excellency, the Governor of Mizoram, Lt. Gen. (Retd.)
M.M. Lakhera. The Governor asked the writers and academicians
to re-write “history with their pens rather than with swords”.
Professor K.C.Baral, Director, English and Foreign Languages
University (EFLU) Shillong Campus, presented his thought provoking
Keynote Address. Introducing with skill the status and the accomplishment
of each resource person he added that “culture should talk to
each other and affect each other”. He also urged writers to
“conceptualise the diversity of the Indian writers”. Dr. Lalrindiki
T. Fanai proposed Vote of thanks. 
campaigns and student rallies. The paper also showed how the
Phawar can also be regarded as parallel history to documented
history.
of
violence and how identity-violence has recently created problems
in many parts of the world, especially in India.
Madhuri
Sondhi, Shri J.K. Tripathi and Professor C.V. Raghavulu spoke
on different aspects of the topics evoking good participation.