Dr. Vinod Mubayiat @ Democracy Dialogues on 30th October 2022

 

Democracy Dialogues Lecture Series (Online )
Organised by New Socialist Initiative

20th Lecture

Topic: 'Partition Split Us Up: Can We Live in Peace as Neighbors ?

Future Challenges and Reflections' 

Speaker: Dr. Vinod Mubayiat

Date and Time:  30th October 2022 at 6 PM (IST).

Facebook Live on - http://fb.com/newsocialistinitiative.nsi

Dr Vinod Mubayi, Public Intellectual, Scientist and Activist will be delivering the 20th Lecture in the Democracy Dialogues Series, organised by New Socialist Initiative on Sunday, 30th October at 7 PM (IST)

Theme :

Partition Split Us Up: Can We Live in Peace as Neighbors? Future Challenges and Reflections

75 years have passed since Partition and the prospects of peace between the two largest countries of the region, India and Pakistan, whose conflict impacts the entire South Asia region look dimmer than ever. The reasons and justifications offered by the protagonists for the separation, such as the two-nation theory, have been discussed at length in various forums and while the past is commonly understood to be prologue to the future it behooves us to imagine a future without all the baggage of the past.

This talk will refer at times to the past and the misdeeds of the present but focus mostly on possibilities for the future. A good amount of experience has shown that despite the most fraught and tense relations between governments, common people of south Asian countries, whether in the diaspora or while visiting each other’s countries, are able to establish bonds and friendships very quickly and easily. Perhaps 75 years cannot easily extinguish long standing cultural and linguistic bonds established over millennia. Dialectics also teaches us that opposing and contradictory views and ideas can co-exist within a society or group and which will prevail depends on the context in which the opposites interact.

Groups such as South Asia Peace Action Network (SAPAN), whose founding charter states that its minimum common agenda is reclaiming South Asia, have attracted members from all South Asian countries. SAPAN calls for soft borders and visa free travel between countries in the region in addition to demands for human rights, peace and justice. The talk will discuss possibilities of expanding the activities of people-to-people groups that can create civil society pressures for peace and prosperity as well as joint actions to counter existential threats like climate change.

                                                                                                                                                                                                About the Speaker :

Dr Vinod Mubayi is a reputed American Physicist of Indian origin.

PhD in Physics from Brandeis University, taught at Cornell University and was a research fellow at TIFR, Mumbai before joining Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York.

A member of the American Nuclear Society, the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he was also a Consultant to agencies of the United Nations on Energy Issues ( 1981-1985)

He joined INSAF bulletin as co-editor in 2004.  A keen observer of socio-political events in India, Mubayi has been close to progressive groups, espousing human rights issues and the cause of the downtrodden

His book 'Where is India Headed ? - An Historical Critique ( 2021, Media House) which chronicles the contemporary Indian History during the last few decades has also been translated into Hindi

(Democracy Dialogue lecture Video) The Partition of India: Three Outstanding Questions by Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy

 

The 19th lecture in the Democracy Dialogues series  was delivered by Prof Pervez Hoodbhoy on 9 October 2022 where he  spoke on "The Partition of India: Three Outstanding Questions "

Topic: The Partition of India: Three Outstanding Questions

Seventy five years after the communal storm of 1947 countless important questions still remain. From among them I will concentrate upon three which are particularly important in understanding the past but which, in addition, continue to influence current trajectories.                                                                                                                                                                1. How, when, and why did the two-nation theory emerge?

2. Why is Pakistan a praetorian state but India is not?

3. Was Partition preventable and had it not happened what might have been the consequences?

Speaker: Pervez Hoodbhoy is a nuclear physicist, a frequent commentator on Pakistani television channels, founder-director of The Black Hole in Islamabad, and an author. He received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from MIT and taught physics at Quaid-e-Azam University for 47 years. 

Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy at Democracy Dialogues on 9th October 2022

 

Democracy Dialogues Lecture Series (Online )
Organised by New Socialist Initiative

19th Lecture

Topic: The Partition of India: Three Outstanding Questions

Speaker: Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy

Date and Time:  9th October  2022  at 6 PM (IST).

Facebook Live on - http://fb.com/newsocialistinitiative.nsi

Professor Pervez Hoodbhoy, eminent physicist, author, public intellectual and a forceful voice for reason,science and democracy will be delivering the 19th Democracy Dialogues lecture on Sunday, October 9th, 2022 at 6 PM (IST)

Topic: The Partition of India: Three Outstanding Questions

Seventy five years after the communal storm of 1947 countless important questions still remain. From among them I will concentrate upon three which are particularly important in understanding the past but which, in addition, continue to influence current trajectories.                                                                                                                                                                1. How, when, and why did the two-nation theory emerge?

2. Why is Pakistan a praetorian state but India is not?

3. Was Partition preventable and had it not happened what might have been the consequences?

Speaker: Pervez Hoodbhoy is a nuclear physicist, a frequent commentator on Pakistani television channels, founder-director of The Black Hole in Islamabad, and an author. He received his undergraduate and graduate degrees from MIT and taught physics at Quaid-e-Azam University for 47 years. 

Please reserve the date and time.

The lecture will be held on zoom and for security reasons the link will be shared individually only closer to the event. Please write to us at democracydialogues@gmail.com if you want to join the lecture online.

It will also be live streamed at facebook.com/newsocialistinitiative.nsi   

(Democracy Dialogue lecture Video) Where Are We : 75 Years after Independence- Professor Aditya Mukherjee

 

The 18th lecture in the Democracy Dialogues series  was delivered by Professor Aditya Mukherjee on 28 August  2022 where he  spoke on "Where Are We : 75 Years after Independence" 

Theme-  Where Are We : 75 Years after Independence

“As we celebrate 75 Years of India’s independence, it is time to reflect on the extent to which the Indian nation-state has lived up to the vision of the Indian national movement and the spirit of the new Constitution. The core ideas behind this vision envisaged that Independent India would be sovereign, democratic, secular republic that will have a pro-poor orientation and would be based on reason rather than blind faith and obscurantism.

With the recent changes in the governmental power at the Centre and in many states where forces following precepts of the Right – forces which had remained outside the spectrum of the national movement – have become dominant resulting in a grave threat to the core components of the Idea of India. There is a reason why the world is no longer accepting India as a full democracy and is, instead, being variously describing it as a “partially free democracy”, a “flawed democracy” and even as an “electoral autocracy”.

In this lecture we will trace the course of developments that has led India to this predicament and will outline future prospects for overcoming the challenges.”

About the Speaker :

 

Prof Aditya Mukherjee has been associated with Centre for Historical Studies, JNU for the last more than four decades.

He has been Editor of the Series, ‘Sage Series in Modern Indian  History’ published by SAGE publications, and a member of Scientific Committee, International Review of Sociology, Rome, since 2011 and Regional Editor, International Journal of AsianStudies, Tokyo (Cambridge University Press)

He has been Visiting Professor at  Duke University, USA ; was a Visiting Fellow at Institute of Advanced Study, Lancaster University, UK ; Fellow at Institute of Advanced Study, Nantes, France ; Visiting Fellow , Institute of Advanced Study, Sao Paulo, Brazil ; Visiting Professor, La Sapienza, University of Rome at various periods during his long career.
He is author / co-author of many books : India’s Struggle for Independence, which has gone into 80 reprints ; India After Independence, 1947 – 2000 ; Imperialism, Nationalism and the Making of the Indian Capitalist Class 1927-1947 ; India Since Independence, Penguin, More than 35 reprints till 2016.7 ; RSS, School Texts and The Murder of Mahatma Gandhi: The Hindu Communal  Project , (co-author)