ORGANIZED BY

TEJASVI ASTITVA FOUNDATION

IN COLLABORATION WITH

MOTHER TERESA WOMEN'S UNIVERSITY, KODAIKANAL, TAMIL NADU, BHARAT [INDIA]

NON POLITICAL CRITIQUE OF EURO-CENTRIC MODEL OF INDIAN DEMOCRACY

ATTENTION PLEASE: DATE FOR REGISTRATION TO THE EVENT EXTENDED TILL 10TH JANUARY 2021 12:00HRS CET (UTC+1) 4:30PM (16:30HRS IST)

INTERNATIONAL WEBINAR

An alternative to the Euro-centric conception of democracy, will not only revitalise democracy in India, but could also resolve a lot of the democratic deficits that exist in the so called mature democracies of the West. 

Democracy has so far always been defined as a regime or a rule.

Sumit Kumar the Speaker, however, describes Democracy as a form of legitimising order. Regime or rule is associalted with exercise of power and authority, which is legitimised in many different ways. The monopoly over this kind of exercise of power and authority is held by the state, but the state can legitimise this exercise of power in many ways, through religious dogma, through violence, through hegemony, or through democracy. However, only in case of democracy, is this legitimacy, freely and fairly obtained through the voluntary acceptance of the exercise of such statist power by the subjects of such power.

INTERNATIONAL WEBINAR WITH A CONCEPT

This International Webinar is a talk that will start with Rousseau's conceptualisation of the inherent paradoxes of democracy and then move on to two major democratic themes of the present times; the decisionist model (populist/illiberal/majoritarian democracy) and the deliberative model (post-political/liberal democracy).

After deficits of both these models have been discussed, the talk will move towards a normative critique of the Euro-Centric Model of Democracy established in India.

This normative critique will initially take the form of a histographic description of the model of Panchayat and emphasise its social and cultural embeddedness inspite of its very apparent limitations. The critique will also discuss the political and the competitive aspect of the euro-centric model including the geographical delimitation of constituencies. It will discuss the top-down nature of the euro-centric model and the concentration of soveriegn power, which paradoxically is anti-thetic to the idea that democracy is a form of legitimacy.

Finally, the talk will concentrate on the alternatives which have always been available to Indians but which were lost during the 200 years to servitude, although still forming part of the collective consciousness and living memory of the Indian Society. The talk will emphasise the importance of reviving the indigenous models of democracy that have already existed in India and adapting them to the contemporaty times and scales. It is the only way in which deocracy as a form of legitimating statist power can survive the test of our turbulent times. Failure to do this will only lead to a crisis of legitimacy of state in India, effects of which are already being felt across the globe.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

SUMIT KUMAR, SOCIAL SCIENTIST, RESEARCHER & FACULTY, EOTVOS LORAND UNIVERSITY, BUDAPEST, HUNGARY

Sumit Kumar is a Social Scientist conducting research on the Rationality of State and State Institutions from Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest, Hungary. Eotvos Lorand University is one of the oldest Universities in Central Europe, and boasts of 5 Nobel Laureates amongts its Alumni.

His main focus is on the normative development of a non-euro centric model of democracy which can be structurally rationalised with an ideo-typical model of Bureaucratic Institutions that constitute late modern states like India. Over the last two years he has developed concepts like the Paradox of Institutional Responsibility, and of Structured Rationality and in applying these concepts to the State Institutions, he has developed a unique perspective on the deficits of the Euro-centric model of Democracy which is established in India. 

In the past he has worked as a Project Manager for more than a decade in India and abroad. He has a Bachelor's Degree in Physics, a Masters in Business Studies and is currently teaching Organisational Sociology at Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest, Hungary.

Speakers

Please Reach us:

Phone# +91-11-9213505490, 8309739377, 8800126010, 9211297887

WhatsApp# 9100443611, 8800126010, 9211297887

Organizer's Website: ngo.tejasviastitva.com

Journal Website: www.tejasviastitva.com