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Liberating Female-centric Forms of Knowledge and Action to Transform Society

Liberating Female-centric Forms of Knowledge and Action to Transform Society

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Liberating Female-centric Forms of Knowledge and Action to Transform Society
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<strong>Centre for the Study of Social Systems School of Social Sciences</strong> <strong>CSSS Colloquium</strong> <strong>Prof. Felix Padel</strong> (Visiting Professor, Centre for the Study of Social Systems) <strong>Liberating Female-centric Forms of Knowledge and Action to Transform Society </strong> Date : <strong>February 18, 2016</strong> <strong>Abstract: </strong>Women's subjection (or male domination) takes many different forms, including rape (which can also be understood as a standard technique of war and political suppression), prostitution and trafficking (NB Lidia Caccio), pornography, clitoradectomy, and in India from suttee to dowry deaths and honour killings. Feminist historians (Riane Eisler et al) have traced world history in terms of the rise of dominator societies that suppressed and exploited women simultaneously with nature and labouring classes; while the prison writings of Abdullah Ocalan have developed traditional Marxist-Leninism by seeing women as the primary oppressed class, which Kurds have used to make women equal to men at every level of political organisation in Turkey and Syria, giving their frontline conflict with Islamic State a character of the most women-liberated society ever fighting against the most misogynist. These ideas link up with feminist thinkers (e.g. Carol Gilligan and Mary Daly) who understand women's liberation in terms of liberating female-centric forms of holistic thought and knowledge, based more on feeling and relating than abstract thought. In India (and elsewhere), where women's prominence in social movements is marked, this may well be partly because 'thinking from the womb' makes them more aware than many men of the rights of future generations, and the disastrous effects of dispossession from the land. Do women tend to understand more empathically and instinctively the importance of ecosystems and community? If Ocalan and the Kurds are right that removing all trace of patriarchy is the first step towards transforming society into a democratic civilisation, should we be learning from this model? <strong>Bio :</strong> Felix Padel is Visiting Professor to CSSS from 10-24 February 2016, and was Visiting Professor to the North East India Study Programme, SSS-1 during July-December 2015. He is currently Consultant Adviser to the Gujarat Ecological Society and a Senior Research Associate at the Centre for World Environment History at Sussex University, UK. He was previously Senior Visiting Fellow at IRMA (Gujarat), and Professor at the School of Rural Managament, IIHMR (Jaipur). His books include: Sacrificing People: Invasions of a Tribal Landscape (2010), Out of This Earth: East India Adivasis and the Aluminium Cartel (with Samarendra Das, 2010), and Ecology, Economy: Quest for a Socially Informed Connection (with Ajay Dandekar and Jeemol Unni, 2013).

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.