A dialogue on the awakening Bharat…
Each year I seek to participate in at least one platform where one can meet, interact and engage with people in realtime, who I have often only interacted with on social media. A sort of connecting up, if you may. And ideally its great to be able to dive into a diversity of subjects that can help broaden and deepen learning across domains. Picking a good fest is not easy, looking for something that will raise more questions than you start with, throw up many points for reflection and deep dive, and above all, an opportunity to meet new people and begin new conversations. This year, the Pondicherry Lit fest was all that and much more.
Anand Ranganathan and Kanchan Gupta curated a really powerful set of conversations over two and a half days. Geopolitics, current affairs, history, the Mahabharata, water and environment, NRC, Article 370 and the $5 Trillion economy. One could argue that’s a huge spread for 2 days. But when strung together in the context of the awakening of Bharat, it became a great thread within which to immerse and internalize.
Sharing a few highlights, especially some quesions that were raised during the dialogue that stayed with me….and will continue to trigger more learning in these subjects. (Explore Pondylitfest on twitter to catch the updates and videos from the discussions.)
On a session discussing the relevance of the Mahabharata in today’s life, Gautam Chikermane set the context saying “…I have an entire bookshelf only with books on the Mahabharata….every reading (of the text) cleans me up from inside”. I resonated so much with that. Reading the text and knowing all of the details is not important, engaging with it in a meaningful way is. How do you engage with the reading of the Mahabharata?
In the same session, Saiswaroopa Iyer, author of Draupadi, The Tale of an Empress, asks us to differentiate between a pacifist response and the compassionate response of a leader in a difficult situation. With Draupadi firmly standing her ground when the Pandavas stake her in the game of dice. Saiswaroopa suggets that Draupadi is not the weakest in that theatre, as several interpretations of the chiraharan would indicate, but she is in fact the strongest leader in that room, who chooses to hold her ground against the injustice and deception, and instead, raises the game for everyone involved.
On a session discussing India and the World, Abhinav Prakash asks why do we not find accounts of travellers from India who traveled through other countries in ancient times? We know that people from this land traveled far and wide for trade, but did we not document? Do we not believe it is important to engage with the world? Great question, because it leads to a reflection on both the desire to document and the need to engage meaningfully. How does the lack of this capability hold us back today?
Vikram Sood, Ex-RAW chief, author of “the Unending Game’, further challenged the group’s thinking: It’s not important what we think of the world, its more important to know and understand how countries think of themselves. That will tell you how they will think of you, how they will work with you. For years we have mistaken Pakistan as a country that thinks like us, and that has led us to make terrible mistakes in our assessment of them and our engagement with them. Excellent point indeed! Will we be able to break out of the tyranny of our own misunderstanding of our neighbour’s intent and agenda?
This session raised the important question of India’s strategic intent, vis-a-vis the world. What is our strategic intent as a nation? Can we articulate it? Is there a deep state that is invested in long term thinking for India, or are we a lot of fractioned perspectives, unable to articulate an aligned intent? Can we grow into a global power, without a clear strategic intent as a country and a people? Could a sustained political will help to create such a telescopic view?
So much to reflect on and internalize through reading and discussions! Wouldn’t you say?
Given the heated debates on the political landscape in India across social media, I think the curators of the Pondy Lit Fest did a great job of staying away from the politics per se, but diving deep into the knowledge within the community on cause, effect and outcomes. There were several excellent discussions on current affairs, especially in the context of Jammu & Kashmir, looking at the challenges and opportunities from the perspective of internal security, foreign policy and the armed forces. These are great topics for a dialogue at a fest where so many writers, journalists, practitioners and leaders help you, as an observer or audience or a student, to begin connecting dots in your own mind, and more importantly, appreciate the challenges ahead.
Lt. Gen Satish Dua who led the surgical strikes as the GOC 15 Corps, elaborated on the strength of a mature, deterrent approach to the aggression in our neighbourhood. And Vikram Sood summarised the heated dialogues really well when he said, its only been two months, in the context of the abrogation of Article 370. “Its too early to make any conclusions, give it time.” Well said!
I came back with a notebook full of reflections, data and insights that will slowly find their way into further dialogue. There were some great keynote speeches that still need some time to internalise.
As Peter Senge said, “In dialogue, individuals gain insights that simply could not be achieved individually.”
I must thank Kanchan Gupta, Partha Hariharan and Alo Pal for keeping such a judicious eye on the time. Every session began on time, closed on time and yet managed a rich discussion. What a brilliant effort that is, given our love for debate! Till the next edition…read, reflect, debate, dialogue and continue to assimilate the dots into insights and learning.
