The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library

cordially invites you to The Seminar

at 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, 4 September 2012

in the Seminar Room, First Floor, Library Building

on

‘From the Margins Looking In: The child- state relationship revisited’

by

                                   Dr. Vijayalakshmi Balakrishnan,

                                            Independent Scholar

Abstract:

The proposed talk will ask who all get to be included in the story of the nation-being-built. Based on the book, Growing Up & Away, Narratives of Indian Childhoods, Memory, History, Identity,( 2011) the presentation will explore what happens to our understanding of borders and boundaries, frontiers and faultiness, when children are included as participants in the making of meaning.

Memory, history and identity play central roles in how childhood is understood and experienced. The potential for violent clashes among and within communities largely involve disputes over history and destiny, linked as they are to the unresolved legacies of the partition of British India.

Through many historical decisions and select recent illustrations, the presentation will provide evidence of how some of those responses continue to resonate in the ways in which the State responds to situations of conflicted citizenship.

Growing Up & Away, Narratives of Indian Childhoods, Memory, History, Identity, traces the evolution of the child rights discourse in post-Independence India, suggesting that there are different and political ways of thinking about childhoods. It makes the point that more than any other event or process, the violence and fears aroused by Partition have influenced the course of modern child development policy-making, and the relationship between the political and cultural identities of all the actors who influence the experience of childhoods.  The link will provide more details. (www.growingupandaway.in)

Speaker:

Dr. Vijayalakshmi Balakrishnan began her career in journalism and has
spent the past 15+ years in evidence-based social development
programme planning and design, working both in India, and overseas.
She has a Masters degree in Development Studies, from the Institute of
Social Studies, The Hague and a post graduate diploma in social
journalism from the Times School.

                                             

All are welcome.
Those wishing to have their names added to the e-mail list may please e-mail us at: nmmldirector@gmail.com

The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library

cordially invites you to The Seminar

at 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, 6 September 2012

in the Seminar Room, First Floor, Library Building

on

' Kabir and Gandhi as Apostles of Human Unity 

   Transcending all Religion and  Caste-based Distinctions’

by

                                                Dr. Saral Jhingran

                                               Former Fellow, NMML

Abstract:

Hinduism has the dubious distinction of upholding a sublime vision of one Atman in all beings, and then supporting extreme caste-based distinctions which deny any suggestion of basic equality. I propose to discuss in this paper two Indian saints who rejected such man made distinctions and declared unconditional human unity.

    Kabir, a 15^th century North Indian saint, rejected all man made distinctions and declared emphatically that one Ram (God) inhabits all living beings; and therefore there is no basic distinction between Hindu and Turk (Muslim), or brahmin and shudra. He denied all distinctions categorically first on the basis of God’s indwelling all; and then, significantly, on a rational basis, saying that all have the same blood and meat, and so on. 

     In 20^th century India, Mahatma Gandhi was confronted with Hindu Muslim tensions on the one hand and the evil of untouchability on the other. He therefore set upon cleaning Indian society of these two evils, by emphasizing the need for mutual understanding and good will between Hindus and Muslims; and relentlessly campaigning for the removal of the practice of untouchability from within Hindu society.

      Being practical and realist, he accepted the distinct identities of Hindus and Muslims, as also that between the “upper” caste Hindus and the so-called untouchables, in whose case he even at first accepted their separate nomenclature and their compulsory hereditary profession. He was not entirely successful in his efforts at unity and harmony between various groups of Indian society because he started with a somewhat wrong premise of dividing the society on the basis of religion and caste. He, however, continuously affirmed his profound conviction that his Ram lived in the hearts of dumb millions, and could be realized only through their service.

Speaker:

Dr. Saral Jhingran got her Ph.D. in Advaita Vedanta and Ethical Action from Rajasthan University in 1972. She has had three   Senior Fellowships of U.G.C. She was also affiliated to NMML  as  Research Scientist B,  from which she retired in 2000 . Her interests range from philosophy of religion and ethics-her prime concern- to sociological issues.

Her publications are : The Roots of World Religions, 1982; Aspects of Hindu Morality 1989, reprint 1999; Secularism in India :A Reappraisal, 1989; Ethical Relativism and Universalism, 2001; and Madrasa Education in India: A Study, 2010. Besides these she has published more than 40 papers in various anthologies, and philosophical journals.

She has also presented papers in various Seminars and Conferences, including World Philosophical Congress, New Delhi and one in Washington on World Peace.  She is presently working on the problem, “Why be Moral? A Search for a Justification of Morality.”

All are welcome.
Those wishing to have their names added to the e-mail list may please e-mail us at:
nmmldirector@gmail.com