HYDERABAD, FEB. 14. Globalisation has been confined to material goods but there has been no globalisation of consciousness leading to social, political and spiritual problems for societies experiencing this process, said Ananda Reddy, director of the Sri Aurobindo Centre for Advanced Research, Pondicherry. Dr. Reddy said India's intellectual traditions and traditional knowledge, its old forms of life were being destroyed under the impact of globalisation. Speaking at the inauguration of a one-day seminar on `Defining Indian Identity in an Era of Globalisation,' he said it was necessary to develop a synthesis of matter and spirit to overcome the problems associated with globalisation. The crisis of contemporary culture was primarily caused by the "breakdown of dialogue and the shrinking of the public sphere", said Sachidanand Mohanty, professor of English at Hyderabad University and convenor of the seminar. Much of the debate in the public domain had become "binary" and had lost the space for nuances. Complex thinking is discouraged while black and white categories are employed to argue out positions, Prof. Mohanty said. It was in this context that revivalisms were coming out to counter globalisation, pushing "true spiritualism" to the background. This `black and white' world-view was also leading to a revival of conflicts and curtailing proper expression of identities. Prof. Mohanty argued that some Indian Renaissance thinkers like Sri Aurobindo had grappled with similar problems and come up with insights which would be instructive in the present context. The seminar had presentations on different topics by Makrand Paranjpe, Professor of English, JNU, New Delhi, Raghurama Raju of the department of philosophy, Hyderabad University, Sasheej Hegde of the sociology department of Hyderabad University, and Partho, former head of Mirambika school in Delhi.
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