Diamond Jubilee Celebration
Bombay Philosophical Society
Inaugural Talk
Kiran Nagarkar
The Arab Spring, but especially the Egyptian version of it, was a
moment of incandescent hope and joy not only for Egyptians but for all those
across the world who continue to fight for fundamental freedoms. For thirty
years Egypt had been a police state under President Hosni Mubarak. Then
overnight both the emergency and Mubarak’s autocratic rule were terminated. And
that too not because of a violent uprising but because of a valiant, non-violent
campaign of civil disobedience and resistance. The Egyptian revolution was fought
initially by two very different ideologies joining hands, the young secular
forces and the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood. Soon the unspoken covenant
between them was broken and the far better organised Brotherhood’s Morsi was
elected President with disastrous consequences.
My paper then is a tentative exploration of the heroics and perils
of idealism. I had tried to deal with that subject in my novel God’s Little Soldier and now in the same
context I hope to ask questions about the relevance of Gandhiji and the place
of a national narrative in our lives. Established democracies easily forget how
hard-won fundamental freedoms are always at risk, but especially when we are
told that for the greater good of society we need to ignore them or keep them
in abeyance. The Egyptian Revolution was hardly noticed in India but it has urgent
lessons for us as well as the rest of the world. The least it deserves is serious
introspection and a public discourse about its consequences and how we can
contribute to it.
Date: 18th July 2014
Timing: 3.30 to 5.00 pm
Venue: Seminar hall, 1st Floor,
Philosophy Department, Sant Jnaneshwar Bhavan, University of Mumbai, Kalina ,
Santacruz( east)
All are Cordially Invited
