dev pathak
I teach postgraduate and doctoral students at South Asian University
Phone: 9910944431
Address: South Asian University, Akbar Bhawan, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi- 110021
Phone: 9910944431
Address: South Asian University, Akbar Bhawan, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi- 110021
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nf34fm8y-Us&t=844s
The session would attempt at acquainting with the significance of folklore in educational research. It would thus lay emphasis on how folklore could aid in arriving at an understanding of the worldview/life world/ weltanschauung, in the field and how an approach to folklore warrants a researcher to adopt a methodological orientation in holistic hermeneutics. It would also explore the possibility of using the tool of content analysis in interpreting folklore.
The plan for the session is as following:
(First 40 minutes)
The session begins with a folktale from Mithila (the Maithili language speaking cultural region from North India) to drive two points: one is pluralism of meanings in the folk resources and second is the possibility of attempt at deciphering the meanings of the tale. The narration of tale would be accompanied by attempts of the participants to make sense of the same.
The activity would perhaps yield a bunch of categories, along which the tale can be codified. In the light of which, there will be a brief deliberation on the application of content analysis to the tale.
(Second 40 minutes)
Following the narration and the activity by the participants to decipher it, there will be short lecture on the nature and scope of studying folklore. This will be connected with a constant reference to the application of folklore in educational research. It would also address the question- why to use folklore in educational research; and how to use folklore in educational research. And most importantly, what is folklore for an educational researcher. By the way of elaborating on the necessity to maintain openness to the pluralism of meanings, the lecturing would also allude to the examples from the folklore of Rajsthan as recounted in the literary work of Vijaydan Detha. Most importantly it would highlight the contemporariness of folklore with reference to a tale by A K Ramanujan.
(Third 30 minutes)
All the participants would be requested to think of anything from the folklore of their region of choice and attempt to arrive at the meaning, and also suggest as to how the same could be useful for educational research.
(Fourth/last 30 minutes)
The last section will consist of a brief discourse on the tangential presence of the component of folklore and thereof mythology in the discussions pertaining to education in India. However, it would also critically examine the disdain of exploring folklore directly. Instead, the discourses explore ideologies present in the lives within as well as without schools. It would propose the questions, which require the educational researchers to take the folklore route to fathom contemporary situation in the realm of school education. To substantiate the synoptic discussion, this section would end with a Kannada folk tale.
Resource Person: Dr. Dev N Pathak, Department of sociology, South Asian University, Akbar Bhawan, Chankyapuri, New Delhi-21/ ([email protected])
Representation connotes discursive politics. It has constructive implications in the sense of erecting identity of the represented as well as under-represented/unrepresented. The cinematic narratives have been studied with the interpretative paradigm to cull out the politics of representation. In particular, Hindi cinema has been on the anvil of cinema studies to understand the process of stereotyping against the backdrop of socio-political set up. The sociological approaches to Hindi cinema too have engaged with the issues of construction and reconstruction of identities. However, identity is also at the cusp of the notions of normal-abnormal.
This paper intends to examine the notions of normal vis-a-vis identity of the disabled. It is not really normal as far as the semantic term would suggest in restricted sense. In a liberal democracy, the socio-political context, the act of constructing ‘normal’ renders the latter as a category to address abnormal. Thereby the identity of disabled, as represented in Hindi cinema, is not only characterised by the physical disability but also the social-structural disability of the society. The way the disabled is understood refers to the social-structural disability. The underpinning epistemological bedrock of the social structure does not help us to understand the identity and self of the disabled beyond the binary opposition of normal and abnormal. Hence, identity of the disabled, reconstructed by the cinematic representation, perpetuates the epistemological prejudices inherent in the social structure toward the disabled. It would not be hyperbolic to say that the more we know about the disabled by the means of cinema, the lesser we are capable to know about the same. As the receivers of the images we are disabled by the reconstructed normal and thereby identity of the disabled.
This paper reads the cinematic narratives of select Bollywood films, starting from the critically acclaimed blockbuster Dosti of Rajshri production in 1964 (directed by Styen Bose & produced by Trachand Barjatya) in the backdrop of socio-political circumstances in which the film made it to many national awards. Subsequently, in the year 2002, Black, by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, hits the national conscience by the way of a retold tale inspired by the autobiography of Helen Keller The story of my life. In between these two critically acclaimed blockbusters, the paper attempts to situate the identification of the disabled in Indian society.
Dev N Pathak
How would a teacher go about reading Gandhi with undergraduate students? What are the possible texts to be taken in to account while engaging with Gandhi? What liberty a pedagogue could afford, and a scholar could perhaps not, while reading variety of texts on Gandhi? What are the deeper meanings emerging from the pedagogic endeavors of teachers and students for reading Gandhi?
Many such questions assume research value in a classroom of undergraduate students, in the colleges of the University of Delhi, who offer the interdisciplinary course titled ‘Reading Gandhi’. The paper is fairly new and demands students and teachers to engage with Gandhi, his life and philosophy, at textual level. Though the design and scope of the paper does not mention it explicitly, the import of the paper warrants a perpetual reference to narratives on Gandhi stemming from Mass-Media. In particular, it is beyond imagination to ‘Read Gandhi’ without fathoming multiple representation of Gandhi in Hindi cinema. As such, there has been a qualitative-theoretical shift in the cinematic perspective on Gandhi from Richard Attenborough (Gandhi, 1982) to Feroz Abbas Khan (Gandhi: My Father, 2007). The trajectory of cinematic representation of Gandhi presents a kaleidoscope of motives/stance in the socio-political backdrop. It begins with hagiographic representation of Gandhi in the Nehruvian post independent India, with an intervening period when Gandhi is pitted against Ambedkar and subsequently against Bhagat Singh, and then it reaches the stage whereby there is a tendency to overcome the popular dichotomy of either for or against Gandhi.
In this light, this paper seeks to understand broadly two aspects, the pedagogic take on Gandhi by reading the whole process of Reading Gandhi vis-à-vis the interdisciplinary paper offered to undergraduate students, and the cinematic perspectives on Gandhi through the representations in the celluloid. By doing so, the paper aims at connecting these two to arrive a hermeneutic understanding of the trajectory of changes in the popular perception on Gandhi. The changes and multiplicity of socio-political perceptions demand a pedagogue to be open for a merger of horizons: of teachers and of students.
Dev N Pathak
Teachers' Conference was an experimentalist/innovative arrangement to judge the validity of the common sense. It was also an apparently utopian conviction to show that Teachers possess scholarship. All it requires is an opportunity and a little nuanced encouragement from a mentor.
what come in the way is the vested interests of the high and mighty. The heads of the organizations hardly understand a very idea of teachers' intellectual flight. They all murder the ethos of the continuous professional development of school teachers.
And yet they float policies and opinions on teachers' education. Yet they run business related to teaching and educating...
Advance Praise for In Defence of the Ordinary
‘This book neither ascends nor descends into the ordinary. Instead,
it accesses and exceeds the everyday. Dev Nath Pathak scrabbles and
scrambles the personal as the public, the routine as the transgressive,
the affective as the constant, the image as the immanent, the vernacular
as the cosmopolitan, the word as the world and vice-versa. A haunting
work intimating spectral challenges—across the ruins we inhabit.’
—Saurabh Dube,
Noted Historian and Anthropologist; Professor at El Colegio de México
and Fellow at Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, Wien/
Vienna, Austria
‘Taking clues from personal experiences, folklore, classical epics,
literature and cinema and of course academic discourses, the author of
these essays delves into a range of emotions with the objective to awaken
the dormant potential of emancipation every day rather than waiting for
an occasional charisma induced by a holy book or a secular gimmick. The
book encompasses everyday situations and “ordinary” (hence universal)
experiences of life, including the ultimate and inevitable one—death, and
tries to take the reader along on this journey of reflection. The result is a
delightfully composed prose with interesting insights.’
—Purushottam Agrawal,
Renowned Cultural and Literary Critic and Author; Former Professor at
Jawaharlal Nehru University, India
‘What is a book? It is assumed to have certain universally shared
features such as structured thoughts, formalised expression while
respecting the rules of consistency and coherence. By their very
nature, these features undermine the authenticity of ordinary human
experiences and do injustice to their fluidity and richness. How then
should a book be defined and written? This fascinating book provides
one answer and exemplifies it through practice. It is full of insights
and will repay close study.’
—Bhikhu Parekh,
Eminent Philosopher and Member of the House of Lords of the UK
‘In Defence of the Ordinary is a book that will appeal to a wide range
of readers. It covers a wide range of subjects, all of which touch upon
author’s life and experiences as a teacher, scholar, husband, father and
son(-in-law). He brings his experience as a sociologist and his work on
folklore to the text in a way that is lively and interesting.’
—Roma Chatterji,
Seasoned Anthropologist of Folk Art and Professor at the Department of
Sociology, University of Delhi, India
‘A splendid work of art, In Defence of Ordinary returns drama, pleasure
and awakening to everyday life. It takes us on an ambitious but quiet
journey, through poetry, politics, philosophy, religion, livelihoods
and everyday encounters between selves, others, gods and things, in
the tradition of cultural critics like Ashis Nandy and Umberto Eco. It
risks academic protocols and disciplinary boundaries, and with great
courage cuts through the division between thought and life that plagues
modern academia. The book is one of a kind.’
—Prathama Banerjee,
Noted Historian and Political Theorist; Professor at Centre for the Study
of Developing Societies (CSDS), India
‘In this fascinating collection of essays, Dev Nath Pathak explores a wide
range of questions related to ordinariness. A flâneur of our everyday
spheres of life, he excavates the multiple layers of social, political and
artistic thinking and experimentation of the Indian society with an
unparalleled lightness of prose worthy of a Baltasar Gracián and Georg
Lichtenberg.’
—Ramin Jahanbegloo,
Philosopher, Professor, Vice Dean and Executive Director at Mahatma
Gandhi Centre for Peace Studies, O.P. Jindal Global University, India
‘This book is a reflective and joyous celebration of the ordinary.
Drawing on diverse examples of everyday life, from dealing with babies
to more weighty issues around love, the book builds an engaging web of
thoughts about things which are ordinary but in their very ordinariness
hide deep social truths. Using examples from commonly enjoyed
In Defence of Ordinary Everyday Awakenings.indd 2 27/05/21 1:15 PM
music, stories and films, Pathak brings a lightness to his critical eye
while reminding us how much of the ordinary has been forgotten in
academic pursuits.’
—Sundar Sarukkai,
Renowned Philosopher and Thinker in Contemporary India
‘From cosmic continuities to the unanticipated and incessant
interruption of everyday life, the “ordinary” is both a shifting terrain
of inquisitiveness, inclination and an anchor in the volatility of human
relations with the earth. Dev Nath Pathak speaks to us from the middle
of these things, unafraid of muddying the waters with reflections that
intertwine his inordinate knowledge of Indian philosophy, cinema and
storytelling with improvised ruminations on everything—fatherly play,
compassionate lust, youthful disagreements, friendship, journeying
and fandom. Throughout, there is the pursuit of the sensuousness of
teaching, of what it means to convey and impart in an implicit critique
of how corporate education has become, how easy it is to defy authority
and how sharing and equanimity can be demonstrated in multiple
encounters not needing a classroom. There is a resounding surfeit
of liveliness in all of these “parables”, a sense of really being alive as
something accessible to everyone no matter how difficult their situation
or how commodified and performance-oriented living has become.’
—AbdouMaliq Simone,
Seasoned Urbanist and Professor of Sociology at Goldsmiths College,
University of London, UK
become an area of consistent interest for those who formally practice social anthropology and sociology. This is particularly the case in South Asia even though the situation beyond the region is only marginally different. One may wonder whether the reason for this absence is due to methodological or theoretical limitations that are inherent in the dominant
approaches of anthropology and sociology. But a self-reflective exploration would suggest that any methodological limitation is the result of the self-induced fear of the visual rather than any inherent limitations as such in either sociology or social anthropology.
This volume looks at the politics of communication and culture in contemporary South Asia. It explores languages, signs and symbols reflective of current mythologies that underpin instances of performance in present-day India and its neighbouring countries. From gender performances and stage depictions to protest movements, folk songs to cinematic reconstructions and elections to war-torn regions, the chapters in the book bring the multiple voices embedded within the grand theatre of popular performance and the cultural landscape of the region to the fore.
Breaking new ground, this work will prove useful to students and researchers in sociology and social anthropology, art and performance studies, political studies and international relations, communication and media studies and culture studies.
Breaking new ground, this work will prove useful to students and researchers in sociology and social anthropology, art and performance studies, political studies and international relations, communication and media studies and culture studies.
Breaking new ground, this work will prove useful to students and researchers in sociology and social anthropology, art and performance studies, political studies and international relations, communication and media studies, and culture studies.