Through a Different Lens: Should India adopt a more civilisation view of the World

Speaker: Dr. Shiv Visvanathan, social scientist , currently Professor at O P Jindal Global University
Chair: Shri Soli J. Sorabjee, President, IIC

 

The talk is an attempt to ask a question for contemporary times. The idea of civilisation has been used more to grasp the sacred, the sense of heritage and the idea of tradition. Words like Nationalism, Development and Globalism seem more appropriate for contemporary narratives on statecraft or policy. We dramatize ourselves within the frame-work of the nation-state with its accompanying ideas of citizenship, boundary, security and contract. This lecture suggests that may be a civilisation view of India is more relevant than a nationalist perspective. It considers a few thought experiments like the idea of South Asia, Climate Change and the notion of Sustainability to develop its argument