Sunday, February 28, 2016

K. Sankaran, Beloo Mehra, and Mitali Saran

Manipal University, started by the TMA Pai, is on the world map with students from over 50 countries coming over to a small hamlet in Karnataka for education... But the fact is that the government patronage of higher education in the present form has outlived its utility. 
For the students the idealism of wishing a better society brings them to student politics. Unless the free debate is allowed outside the constraints of a utilitarian-oriented government machinery, we are likely to see more of such conflicts as being witnessed in JNU or the Hyderabad University. The government in power may think that the problem is one of lack of nationalism or patriotism. But this line of thinking is one of patronization and a “big bother” attitude. Managing young minds is in no way similar to managing political, bureaucratic or corporate organizations. A different set of skills have to be applied to manage young idealistic minds. A combination of the highest cognitive skills and highest affective skills have to be brought in to manage students whose aspirations are high, who are competitive, differentially endowed, and whose ideas of what is practical and impractical are still under formation. 
The leadership of educational institutions calls for combining strictness with kindness, genuine concern with student welfare with detachment, respect for rules with flexibility, and reward for the individual genius while maintaining egalitarianism in the classroom. Outside, the common man may think that subject expertise is adequate for teaching at higher education institutions. Expertise is only part of the requirement. The right emotional tone, the ability to institute systems that are perceived to be fair and yet capable of being challenged when justice is at stake are required of the educational leaders. [...]
And debris management is as good (or bad!) as no management. In simple terms we have to accept first that the current situation is caused by expedient, political factors. All major decisions in India seem to be marked by impatience, lack of respect for contested argumentation, political expediency, inadequate intellectual and emotional skills to negotiate opposing views, lack of respect for conceptualization and amfeudal mindset. I think we should be reframing the questions. The problems are created by inadequate anticipation on the part of the society and policy makers... When these is some serious discussion on this, the discussants (society in this case) will themselves solve the issues on hand. We will not have to have the so-called leaders solving problems for us.

Alan Krishnan Wow, great insight and food for thought. Government should stay out of academics and limit involvement to low interest loans and land allocation… show more
K Sankaran Alan, Great idea... A national educational foundation to encourage quality research and knowledge development among private universities.

Published by Beloo See more
Why Nationalism? February 23, 2016 Beloo Mehra Student of Sri Aurobindo, Educator, Writer, Blogger.
Lately in India it has become fashionable among some self-styled intellectuals and their unthinking proteges and admirers to say that they don’t believe in the ‘idea’ of nation and nationalism. These can be found saying this sort of thing in some of our university campuses, TV studios, and also social media. [...]
An important article, a guest post, is being serialised on our research blog, Matriwords. It is important because it speaks about the different forces trying to break India, the necessity to counter such forces, and what must be done to counter such forces.

The fig leaf is gone, revealing the BJP's naked Hindutva. My column in @bsindia today. http://www.business-standard.com/article/opinion/mitali-saran-there-goes-the-fig-leaf-116022600342_1.html …
Until quite recently, despite all the problems that we face – corruption, criminality, oppression, bigotry, inefficiency, lawlessness, inaction, and monumental incompetence – India kept making the noises that responsible, civilised, progressive democracies make. A lot of those noises constituted the merest fig leaf over on-going awfulness. But even a fig leaf counts for something, a lifeline to the democratic values we signed up for, in the turbulence of current events.
In the last couple of weeks, even that fig leaf of propriety has been tossed aside, and what it reveals is truly obscene. It’s not just the uglies — it’s the uglies twisted and turned upside down. 


Thursday, February 25, 2016

Sri Aurobindo needs to be understood in totality and not by snippets

Ambedkar, Democracy, Upanishads - Swarajya

swarajyamag.com/magazine/ambedkar-democracy-upanishads
A most probable unstated and even unconscious influence on Dr Ambedkar could have been Sri Aurobindo. As seen earlier in this series, Sri Aurobindo was brought by Sayajirao Gaikwad to Baroda, and he influenced the thinking of the reformist king. Sri Aurobindo contributed to the development of Baroda and was also instrumental in writing a lot of the late Sayajirao’s important speeches. Sri Aurobindo, who had condemned the undemocratic elements of the caste system in no uncertain terms, had written way back in 1907 
One can also see how he takes forward the idea of Sri Aurobindo, Sayajirao and Lajpat Rai that democracy is part of the spiritual conception of Brahman. His anger comes from the non-implementation of the social implication of Advaita. In fact, Swami Vivekananda’s similar observations about Hinduism merit recollection here.

Cunning spin [A most probable unstated and even unconscious influence on Dr Ambedkar could have been Sri Aurobindo.]
Kowtowing to Marx, Mythology, or Dynasty mean the same thing: intellectual subjugation. Only Sri Aurobindo spurs adventure of consciousness
The proposition is simple. Sri Aurobindo's thought should replace what the RSS, Congress, and the Left have been preaching all these years.
Sri Aurobindo is to be understood in totality and not in snippets and in exclusion of the confusion perpetrated by his famous contemporaries. [TNM55]

How Smriti Irani single-handedly decimated the ... - News - Dailyhunt

m.dailyhunt.in › news › india › english  ... the brand of nationalism that the likes of Sri Aurobindo and Rabindranath Tagore endorsed and said ... She dared if Sugata Bose would endorse the " communist view" of Durga Puja which considers it ...

Watch: Those defining nationalism so narrowly will call Tagore anti ...

m.dailyhunt.in › news › india › english Watch: Those defining nationalism so narrowly will call Tagore anti-national : Sugata Bose ... the brand of nationalism that the likes of Sri Aurobindo and Rabindranath Tagore endorsed and said that the ...

JNU Row, Rohit Vemula's Suicide Rocks ... - News - Dailyhunt

m.dailyhunt.in › news › india › english TMC MP and former Harvard professor Sugata Bose accused the government of being ... selfish and arrogant" and even warned them for raising this pitch while qoting Tagore, Netaji and Aurobindo.

JNU Row, Rohit Vemula's Suicide Rocks ... - News - Dailyhunt

m.dailyhunt.in › news › india › english TMC MP and former Harvard professor Sugata Bose accused the government of being ... selfish and arrogant" and even warned them for raising this pitch while qoting Tagore, Netaji and Aurobindo.

JNU Row, Rohit Vemula's Suicide Rocks Parliament; Emotional ...

m.newindianexpress.com › nation-2 TMC MP and former Harvard professor Sugata Bose accused the government of being ... selfish and arrogant" and even warned them for raising this pitch while qoting Tagore, Netaji and Aurobindo.
sugata aurobindo from www.catchnews.com ... the brand of nationalism that the likes of Sri Aurobindo and Rabindranath Tagore endorsed and said ... She dared if Sugata Bose would endorse the " communist view" of Durga Puja which considers it ...

JNU Row, Rohit Vemula's Suicide Rocks Parliament; Emotional ...

news.chennaionline.in › JNU-Row-Rohit-...
1 hour ago - TMC MP and former Harvard professor Sugata Bose accused the government of being ... selfish and arrogant" and even warned them for raising this pitch while qoting Tagore, Netaji and Aurobindo.
sugata aurobindo from www.newindianexpress.com TMC MP and former Harvard professor Sugata Bose accused the government of being ... selfish and arrogant" and even warned them for raising this pitch while qoting Tagore, Netaji andAurobindo.

Ent - India News

in.shafaqna.com › hashtag ›  BJP s nationalism is centralised despotism: Sugata Bose. -sify.com/ ... BJP s nationalism is centralised despotism: Sugata Bose ..... Sell Strides Shasun, Torrent Pharma, Aurobindo Pharma: Gujral.

'No one is the univocal spokesperson for the nation': ...

www.walkileaks.com › nobody-is-the-un... Trinamool Congress MP Sugata Bose spoke within the Lok Sabha debate .... And what didAurobindo say about this?

'Nobody is the univocal spokesperson for the nation' - ...

timesofindia.indiatimes.com › India Trinamool Congress MP Sugata Bose spoke in the Lok Sabha debate on .... And what didAurobindo say about this?

Mayawati steals BJP's thunder | Business Standard News

www.business-standard.com › ...
sugata aurobindo from www.business-standard.com Mayawati steals BJP's thunder on Business Standard. BJP's nationalism narrow, selfish and arrogant: Sugata Bose.

Savitri Era of those who adore, Om Sri Aurobindo & The Mother.