Democracy Dialogues Lecture 30 :

Speaker: 

Professor Sucheta Mahajan

Centre for Historical Studies, JNU ( retd)

Date: Sunday, 28 th April, at 6 PM (IST)

Theme :

‘Secularism in a Religious Mode ?-  Gandhi’s Practice during Partition ‘

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The lecture will be live on facebook.com/newsocialistinitiative.nsi

Abstract :

The talk looks at the practice of Gandhi in his struggle against communalism in the years leading up to Partition. 

This is a hugely controversial subject with polarised positions taken by his followers and critics. 

The perspective of the talk emerges from Gandhi’s oft quoted but not heeded statement, My Life is My Message. The talk is a reading of a life text in this sense: Gandhi’s mission in Noakhali to mend the social fabric torn by communal riots and spread of communal ideology.

Gandhi’s search for a way out may offer some insights to those sharing his concern for a secular, plural society and polity today.

About the Speaker :

Professor at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, till the end of February 2023, Professor Mahajan has been visiting professor and Fellow at different International and National  Institutions.

She was member of the prestigious international research projects such as SPECTRESS and CHCI-MELLON Crises of Democracy, Global Humanities Institute. She has authored and edited many books on India’s Independence Struggle, Partition, Challenge of Communalism, Composite Culture etc

Publications :

Towards Freedom: Documents on the Movement for Independence in India, 1947, Parts One
and Two, (edited and with an Introduction) OUP, 2013 and 2015.
Education for Social Change: MVF and Child Labour, National Book Trust, New Delhi, 2008.
RSS, School Texts and the Murder of Mahatma Gandhi- The Hindu Communal Project (with
Aditya and Mridula Mukherjee) Sage Publications, 2008.
Composite Culture in a Multi-Cultural Society (Co-edited with Bipan Chandra), Pearson India & National Book Trust, New Delhi, 2006. 
Rites of Passage, A Civil Servant Remembers: H.M. Patel, (ed.), Rupa & Co., New Delhi,2005.
Independence and Partition: The Erosion of Colonial Power in India, Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2000.