Independence Day Lecture
Comments Off Inna Reddy SJ
INDEPENDENT INDIA AND CHALLENGES TO DEMOCRACY
“India that fought imperial power and won in the past can successfully fight
the evils of divisiveness and oppression today” – Prof. Kamal Mitra Chenoy
To mark the 64th Independence Day of the nation, a special lecture was organized today at Vidyajyoti. The speaker was Dr. Kamal Mitra Chenoy, Professor at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and well-known Human Rights activist.
Dr. Chenoy pointed to the many contradictions and anomalies that beleaguer us. In a country that has 470 dollar billionaires, 77% of the people suffer from malnutrition. The executive, judiciary and the media which are supposed to protect and champion the cause of the common people are often found to work against them. Right to life, Right to food, Right to livelihood, and Right to education – all are being rendered meaningless and ineffectual by limiting clauses. India wants to become a great and powerful nation through increased militarization, not by eradicating poverty and hunger and ensuring other basic needs of all its citizens.
The way out is through knowledge and consciousness that empower people. There is a need for a new coalition of all secular groups, a rainbow coalition of people from different persuasions, in order to work towards an India which is more just, more egalitarian and more harmonious. Religions can and must contribute towards this. There is no contradiction here. If my religion makes me anti-people and causes me to discriminate against people of other persuasions, then I am communal. Such people are a minority in every religion. Most people in India are both religious and secular. So the secular and the pious can work together. There is hope: “India that fought the imperial power and won in the past can successfully fight the evils of divisiveness and oppression today”
The programme was emceed by Roshan Tirkey SJ and chaired by Fr. Poulose Mangai SJ.
