Page 30 - EW May 2020 for Flipbuilder

Expert Comment

Society needs moral

repair & healing

SHIV VISVANATHAN

HE ENORMITY OF THE CORONA PANDEMIC It’s sad that the coronavirus crisis has
crisis demands that we rise above current stereo-
types and perceptions. This transformation has to not been viewed through the lens of
Toccur in two forms. We have to acknowledge that ethical imagination. We are confronted
the Corona crisis has unearthed much deeper and funda-
mental problems. The first is a crisis of imagination and with policy illiteracy for which a
cerebration. The stereotypes used to evaluate the crisis at revolution in education is the answer
the policy level have become obvious and predictable. It
highlights the need to view India as a knowledge society
and make experiments in pedagogy part of the democratic in philosophy and the social sciences. The tragedy is general
and cognitive imagination. acceptance that all that a crisis demands is a return to nor-
A philosopher friend of mine suggested three examples,
beginning with something playful. We need a graphic novel malcy, when the old normalcy won’t be available.
The silver lining of the Coronavirus pandemic and the
of the epidemic to help us visualise key moments of decision prolonged national lockdown, is rising awareness that In-
making. Second, we need to make future studies a part of dian democracy has to go beyond the conventional ideas of
everyday pedagogies. Futures, as cultural anthropologist electoralism, vote banks and majoritarianism. Democracy
Margaret Mead and peace research scientist Johan Gal- has to be an inventive imagination which recreates the idea
tung have suggested, should be taught in schools, so that of citizenship. Citizenship is not just about entitlements, it
scenario building gaming exercises, heuristics and systems has to be seen as a combination of inventiveness and heu-
connectivity become intrinsic to the way in which all stu- ristics for future learning.
dents learn. herefore to rethink citizenship, we have to reinvent civil
My friend added that we also need to rethink the city as
a continuous learning system, the way Patrick Geddes and Tsociety as a locus for new cognitive experiments. We
have to view crises differently, not as alien or infrequent
other sociologists have suggested. We have to rethink the catastrophes, but as rhythms of normal life and living. We
city with every catastrophe. Our incumbent politicians and have to deliberate what happens to various types of citizens
policy wonks seem to have forgotten the migrant and infor- in crises. How do we redefine the refugee, the migrant, the
mal economy, with devastating consequences. They have unemployed, the aged, even children, with their distinctive
to go beyond poverty to understand vulnerability. Indian vulnerabilities, in a crisis? We need to rethink citizenship
society owes an apology to our migrants if it has to recover beyond certification of residency and sedentary identity.
as a democratic imagination. I am reminded of a scene in Antjie Krog’s book on post-
Moreover, there’s need to look beyond society and the aparthied South Africa’s Truth & Reconciliation Commis-
city as learning organisations, at questions of time and sion. In The Country of My S k ull (1998) she invoked an
memory. Within a few weeks after a crisis, society goes African philosopher to posit that societies have to invent
back to old ways and habits. We will pretend the Corona a new idea of strangers everyday, to learn new forms of
crisis never happened. The need is not for monuments or hospitality and caring. The definition of citizenship needs
memorials. It’s for feedback of mnemonics so that we can a sense of generosity which it lacks currently. This requires
start correcting errors. Such transformation requires a new us to go beyond the formality of law and political economy
idea of economics. It is time to disembed economies the to a moral economy of trusteeship and responsibility.
way anthropologist Karl Polayni suggested: disaggregate In school and college curriculums of the post-Covid age,
the formal economy into sub-sets such as the informal, ethics, a missing item in the crisis, must be brought back
tribal and crafts economies and use systems theory to cre- into policy. Our society desperately needs moral repair
ate differing connectivities between parts and whole. The and healing. It’s sad that the Coronavirus crisis has not
deficiency of latter day economics is that the whole is less been viewed through the lens of ethical imagination. We
than the sum of its parts. are confronted with policy illiteracy for which a revolution
The pandemic has demanded that people learn to work in education is the answer. We need a new generation of
at home. But no one except architect Gautam Bhatia has educationists of the calibre of Maria Montessori and Jiddu
suggested differentiation between house and home, be- Krishnamurthy. We also need to remember words of South
tween a residence and productivity and conviviality of the African author J.P. Donleavy who famously wrote that fu-
family that stays within. As many anthropologists have ture is a different country, in which we will have to behave
suggested, there’s need to venture beyond the linearity of differently.
timetables. Progressive societies have to be open to the idea
of multiple life cycles to avoid confusing old age with obso- (Shiv Visvanathan is director of the Centre for the Study of Knowledge
lescence. Both healthcare and democracy need revolutions Systems at O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat)

30 EDUCATIONWORLD MAY 2020