10-14-2006, 11:22 PM
Has anybody looked into these ?
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheHeathenIn...ss/message/2913
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Re: [TheHeathenInHisBlindness] Revisiting 'Some Theses on Colonial Consciousness'
Dear Kannan
This is to draw the attention of you all to some
endevours that I know of. I have no idea if these are
successful endevours. I woudn't know a successful
endevour if I saw one. But they are of interest to
this group because of the ways they relate to Indian
tradition or Indian culture. These are some
initiatives/approaches/developments that I find worth
engaging with. You may find them of interest.
1. First is the work of Navjyoti Singh who is based at
the National Institute of Science, Technology and
Development (NISTADS), Delhi. I have found his
writings very interesting and helpful in engaging with
Indian theoretical traditions. Earlier he was very
active in organizing the three Congresses on
Traditional Sciences and Technology of India in
Mumbai, Chennai and Varanasi. He is widely traveled in
India in connection with this work and has innumerable
stories of his conversations with various people and
other happenings. On the webpage below, one can find
online three recent pieces by him on Irrational in
Greek and Indian thought, on mathematics, causality
and the mind/matter distinction, and Towards a formal
theory of society. He likes to label his current
pursuits as �exact humanities� and draws heavily from
what he calls Indian analytic traditions. I attended a
three-week international summer school in Simla on
�Working of Mind� where he presented his ongoing work
on exact theories of mind. He has a book length
manuscript on the same waiting for a publisher.
http://www.nistads.res.in/ppl/peopleinfote...php?recordid=46
2. Jeevan Vidya is a programme based on a new
philosophy or darsana called �Madhyatha Darshan� or
�Sah-astitvavad�. The last can be translated as
�Coexistentialism�, but it has hardly any connection
with the philosophical school we know as
existentialism. The propounder of this philosophy is
a person called A. Nagraj Sharma who is old and alert
and is based in Amarkantak, the place where the
Narmada river is supposed to have originated. He
belonged to Karnataka, moved to Amarkantak in search
of answers to the questions he had that could not be
answered by the traditional scholars in his village.
His is a traditional trajectory. He was attempting to
attain the state of �samadhi� when he came to
Amarkantak, because he had been told that his
questions will be answered only then. I think he is
supposed to have attained the state of �samadhi� but
his questions remained unanswered. This was around the
time of Indian independence and he felt disappointed
by the new Indian constitution. Subsequently, he
discovered this new philosophy. It is a complete new
philosophy or darshana in the Indian style.
During the last decade or more, many people felt
attracted to this philosophy and recently a programme
called Jeevan Vidya based on this philosophy has
gathered momentum. They conduct week-long workshops or
�shivirs� where they put forth the basic proposals of
this philosophy and urge the people to verify these
proposals by self exploration of their experiences,
combined with study. Nagraj Sharma has written around
ten books where the philosophy is articulated. All
except one of the books are somewhat technical
expositions. The language of his speech and writings
is colloquial Hindi. I attended a week long workshop
of Jeevan Vidya this year. These shivirs are usually
oversubscribed and no techniques, yogic or otherwise,
is taught. They consist of conversations about
experiences, observations, philosophical discussions
around the proposals of this philosophy. These
workshops were developed and are conducted now by
several people. These people consult Nagraj Sharma
often. Nagraj Sharma is known as Baba in Amarkantak
and dispenses Ayurvedic remedies. In the shivir that I
attended there were many young people, older people,
many ex-engineers, etc. They claim they have conducted
these shivirs successfully with different classes of
people ranging from highly educated to uneducated,
people of all ages, communities etc. Some of the
people deeply involved in these programmes have
technology bacground, some have been involved earlier
in peasant movements. There are many former IIT Kanpur
folks. International institute of information
technology, Hyderabad has a compulsory course based on
Jeevan Vidya for all entrants. A few other
institutions are adopting it too. Some educational
programmes have derived their central ideas from this
philosophy.
There is a yahoo group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jeevan_vidya_kanpur/
But I do not find the discussion here very
enlightening (shivirs are very interesting because
there is a lot of debate in a group as diverse as they
are. people come with families, parents and children
too). Most people writing here have attended several
shivirs and have studied some of these books. Half the
stuff is in Hindi transliteration and communication
seems cryptic. All publications are only in Hindi
right now.
From a cursory acquaintance I can say that it is a
darsana seeking to provide all answers and answers
that can supposedly be tested in experience. It even
proposes a guiding framework for a new constitution. A
philosophy of human being occupies the centrestage. It
engages with tradition as well as science but claims
to go beyond both by showing where they fall short.
Some people find it too metaphysical. My engagement
with it is not very deep and just beginning.
3. The third is a slender philosophical tract in Hindi
that I read recently called �Anant Ka Chhand: Ek
Tatvashastriya vimarsh� (Metric? of Eternity: A
Philosophical Discourse) published by Adhaar
Prakashan, Panchkula, Haryana. This is written by one
Prasanna Chaudhary from Bihar. He used to be an
important functionary and an ideologue of the then
underground ultra-left political organization called
CPI-ML Liberation group. This is one of the three
influential ultra-left formations in Bihar. This group
is considered responsible for the beginning of
Naxalite movement in Bihar from an area called
Bhojpur. Prasanna Choudhary withdrew from active
politics several years ago and devoted himself to
study. He is currently known in some Hindi circles for
his poetry.
This book propounds a philosophical framework, based
on Indian tradition, seeking to find a direction in
today�s world. A major part of the work is again an
exposition on the nature of human existence. The work
constantly refers to contemporary issues and events
like globalisation, information technology, etc. There
are many references to scientific concepts as well. If
I find an appropriate section and if I have time, I
might post a translation sometime in future.
4. I have mentioned Sunil Sahasrabudhey before. He has
written a book on peasant movement and another called
�Science and Politics�(Ashish Prakashan, Delhi). I am
not sure if they are in print. Another book of his
called �Gandhi�s Challenge to Modern Science� is
available online at
http://multiversitylibrary.com/download.jsp?bookID=27
Among those I have listed here, he draws the least
(explicitly) on Indian tradition apart from Gandhi. He
had submitted his Phd thesis on �Sakriyatavad: A
philosophy of liberation for colonized people� in
Hindi at IIT Kanpur. He was not allowed to submit his
thesis because it was written in Hindi. He lost his
case in the Supreme Court and refused to rewrite it in
English and remains without a doctorate. He is a
faculty at Gandhian Institute of Studies at Varanasi.
Well, I don�t know how useful all this information is
for you. Especially since the access to some of them
is restricted by distance and language. And I cannot
articulate the content beyond giving some background
information. I thought these individuals/approaches
are interesting for this group because all of them
take Indian tradition seriously, but they are
different from previous approaches based on tradition.
-avinash<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheHeathenIn...ss/message/2913
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Re: [TheHeathenInHisBlindness] Revisiting 'Some Theses on Colonial Consciousness'
Dear Kannan
This is to draw the attention of you all to some
endevours that I know of. I have no idea if these are
successful endevours. I woudn't know a successful
endevour if I saw one. But they are of interest to
this group because of the ways they relate to Indian
tradition or Indian culture. These are some
initiatives/approaches/developments that I find worth
engaging with. You may find them of interest.
1. First is the work of Navjyoti Singh who is based at
the National Institute of Science, Technology and
Development (NISTADS), Delhi. I have found his
writings very interesting and helpful in engaging with
Indian theoretical traditions. Earlier he was very
active in organizing the three Congresses on
Traditional Sciences and Technology of India in
Mumbai, Chennai and Varanasi. He is widely traveled in
India in connection with this work and has innumerable
stories of his conversations with various people and
other happenings. On the webpage below, one can find
online three recent pieces by him on Irrational in
Greek and Indian thought, on mathematics, causality
and the mind/matter distinction, and Towards a formal
theory of society. He likes to label his current
pursuits as �exact humanities� and draws heavily from
what he calls Indian analytic traditions. I attended a
three-week international summer school in Simla on
�Working of Mind� where he presented his ongoing work
on exact theories of mind. He has a book length
manuscript on the same waiting for a publisher.
http://www.nistads.res.in/ppl/peopleinfote...php?recordid=46
2. Jeevan Vidya is a programme based on a new
philosophy or darsana called �Madhyatha Darshan� or
�Sah-astitvavad�. The last can be translated as
�Coexistentialism�, but it has hardly any connection
with the philosophical school we know as
existentialism. The propounder of this philosophy is
a person called A. Nagraj Sharma who is old and alert
and is based in Amarkantak, the place where the
Narmada river is supposed to have originated. He
belonged to Karnataka, moved to Amarkantak in search
of answers to the questions he had that could not be
answered by the traditional scholars in his village.
His is a traditional trajectory. He was attempting to
attain the state of �samadhi� when he came to
Amarkantak, because he had been told that his
questions will be answered only then. I think he is
supposed to have attained the state of �samadhi� but
his questions remained unanswered. This was around the
time of Indian independence and he felt disappointed
by the new Indian constitution. Subsequently, he
discovered this new philosophy. It is a complete new
philosophy or darshana in the Indian style.
During the last decade or more, many people felt
attracted to this philosophy and recently a programme
called Jeevan Vidya based on this philosophy has
gathered momentum. They conduct week-long workshops or
�shivirs� where they put forth the basic proposals of
this philosophy and urge the people to verify these
proposals by self exploration of their experiences,
combined with study. Nagraj Sharma has written around
ten books where the philosophy is articulated. All
except one of the books are somewhat technical
expositions. The language of his speech and writings
is colloquial Hindi. I attended a week long workshop
of Jeevan Vidya this year. These shivirs are usually
oversubscribed and no techniques, yogic or otherwise,
is taught. They consist of conversations about
experiences, observations, philosophical discussions
around the proposals of this philosophy. These
workshops were developed and are conducted now by
several people. These people consult Nagraj Sharma
often. Nagraj Sharma is known as Baba in Amarkantak
and dispenses Ayurvedic remedies. In the shivir that I
attended there were many young people, older people,
many ex-engineers, etc. They claim they have conducted
these shivirs successfully with different classes of
people ranging from highly educated to uneducated,
people of all ages, communities etc. Some of the
people deeply involved in these programmes have
technology bacground, some have been involved earlier
in peasant movements. There are many former IIT Kanpur
folks. International institute of information
technology, Hyderabad has a compulsory course based on
Jeevan Vidya for all entrants. A few other
institutions are adopting it too. Some educational
programmes have derived their central ideas from this
philosophy.
There is a yahoo group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/jeevan_vidya_kanpur/
But I do not find the discussion here very
enlightening (shivirs are very interesting because
there is a lot of debate in a group as diverse as they
are. people come with families, parents and children
too). Most people writing here have attended several
shivirs and have studied some of these books. Half the
stuff is in Hindi transliteration and communication
seems cryptic. All publications are only in Hindi
right now.
From a cursory acquaintance I can say that it is a
darsana seeking to provide all answers and answers
that can supposedly be tested in experience. It even
proposes a guiding framework for a new constitution. A
philosophy of human being occupies the centrestage. It
engages with tradition as well as science but claims
to go beyond both by showing where they fall short.
Some people find it too metaphysical. My engagement
with it is not very deep and just beginning.
3. The third is a slender philosophical tract in Hindi
that I read recently called �Anant Ka Chhand: Ek
Tatvashastriya vimarsh� (Metric? of Eternity: A
Philosophical Discourse) published by Adhaar
Prakashan, Panchkula, Haryana. This is written by one
Prasanna Chaudhary from Bihar. He used to be an
important functionary and an ideologue of the then
underground ultra-left political organization called
CPI-ML Liberation group. This is one of the three
influential ultra-left formations in Bihar. This group
is considered responsible for the beginning of
Naxalite movement in Bihar from an area called
Bhojpur. Prasanna Choudhary withdrew from active
politics several years ago and devoted himself to
study. He is currently known in some Hindi circles for
his poetry.
This book propounds a philosophical framework, based
on Indian tradition, seeking to find a direction in
today�s world. A major part of the work is again an
exposition on the nature of human existence. The work
constantly refers to contemporary issues and events
like globalisation, information technology, etc. There
are many references to scientific concepts as well. If
I find an appropriate section and if I have time, I
might post a translation sometime in future.
4. I have mentioned Sunil Sahasrabudhey before. He has
written a book on peasant movement and another called
�Science and Politics�(Ashish Prakashan, Delhi). I am
not sure if they are in print. Another book of his
called �Gandhi�s Challenge to Modern Science� is
available online at
http://multiversitylibrary.com/download.jsp?bookID=27
Among those I have listed here, he draws the least
(explicitly) on Indian tradition apart from Gandhi. He
had submitted his Phd thesis on �Sakriyatavad: A
philosophy of liberation for colonized people� in
Hindi at IIT Kanpur. He was not allowed to submit his
thesis because it was written in Hindi. He lost his
case in the Supreme Court and refused to rewrite it in
English and remains without a doctorate. He is a
faculty at Gandhian Institute of Studies at Varanasi.
Well, I don�t know how useful all this information is
for you. Especially since the access to some of them
is restricted by distance and language. And I cannot
articulate the content beyond giving some background
information. I thought these individuals/approaches
are interesting for this group because all of them
take Indian tradition seriously, but they are
different from previous approaches based on tradition.
-avinash<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->