The IDGis one of the oldest and most respected societies of St. Stephen's College, Delhi. It looks to broaden perspectives by discussing a variety of issues with eminent personalities.
Our talks often throw up some very unexpected answers and, even more often, some very unexpected questions.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
The Informal Discussion Group invites you to an interactive session with:
I have been following the talks at I.D.G for some time now, and have throughly enjoyed each of them, untill Arun Shourie left me with a certain distaste in my mouth. Arun Shourie and his communal gimmicks are well known and didnt surprise me at there paucity towards their understanding of Islam. What surprised me was the smooth assimilation of his stunt by a crowd whom i expected to show a little light of reason and understanding to a man experiencing a dull hangover of his colonial understanding of History and Culture.
I have been following the talks at I.D.G for some time now, and have throughly enjoyed each of them, untill Arun Shourie left me with a certain distaste in my mouth. Arun Shourie and his communal gimmicks are well known and didnt surprise me at there paucity towards their understanding of Islam. What surprised me was the smooth assimilation of his stunt by a crowd whom i expected to show a little light of reason and understanding to a man experiencing a dull hangover of his colonial understanding of History and Culture.
This is in response to Mr. Ali's enlightening comment.. But I'd like to point out that Mr. Arun Shourie despite being a member of a self proclaimed "hindutva hita rakshak " party , had the audacity to choose the topic "Rethinking Our Rligions".His understanding of Islam (even if acc. to you stinks of remnants of colonialism)includes SHURA, IJTEHAD, IQHTALAF the three basics of democracy as mentioned in the Ha'dith. ILMA AFROZ(VIEWS ARE PERSONAL)
A wolf is found among sheeps only in a sheeps disguise..... Ilma it never took me much to note that your guest did everything except 'Rethinking Our Religions' rather he led his discourse to 'Rethinking Islam'. A few terms like SHURA, IJTEHAD, IQHTALAF could be quoted by anyone, but their application is somthing which requires an understanding of cultural pasts, as much as that of Islam. His lack of knowledge became helplessly visible when I quoated to him from 'The Quran'. If a person like Mr. Shourie becomes the fountainhead of Hindu viewpoint, where does the moderate hindu viewpoint go.
while it's true that arun shourie's views were not at all 'moderate', they weren't endorsed by the IDG as a group, or by any person in particular.
what went wrong at the talk was that there wasn't enough time for a thorough question-answer session, on account of some weather-related mishaps. perhaps it would be better if we changed the format of such talks to a more karan-thapar-esque interrogation-based interaction, yes?
The session with Karan Thapar was no doubt wonderful, and i will look forward to more such sessions. But the old pattern has a charm too. With a person like Karan Thapar it is fun putting all the questions. Yet there are some people whom its great listening too.
I wasnt there for the Karan Thapar talk but from what i heard, it was a q and a session only. This makes sense for Karan Thapar whose show is quite popular, based on a wide range on issues and regularly watched by many of us in college but for those guests whose work might not be that accessible, a talk makes more sense so that they can point out their views first. Plus a topic of discussion and who is speaking on that particular topic is also a major incentive for people to attend the talk. Shaunna
I suppose the general conclusion that one can make is that discussions need to be moderated like in case of Shourie. A Q&A session would work for somebody like Karan Thapar. While discussions on 'old pattern' should be retained when there is scope for greater interaction between audience and speaker. Good thing about Karan Thapar's session was that it happened on a Saturday afternoon making it easy for Day Scholars to attend.IDG should certainly give up some of its 'nocturnal habits'.
Arvind Kejriwal....no doubt is doing a good job...but he un4tunately he is trying 4 something dat will never hapn...& i m sorry to say so....no party in power will ever allow such a thing 2 happen....which makes their job useless...the fact is it is not the salary given by the govt 2 mp's for their job...but the money they make by not performing their duties....i m afraid that if Mr. Arvind tries too much...he will definitely be suppressed...."Mohalla" kind of a thing is possible only in villages...that 2 bcoz...THEY DONT HAVE A JOB....And yes...i kno some pple may disagree with me...but then...this is the fact....
looking forward for comments...& also more discussions by the IDG....
on the topic:
9 comments:
I have been following the talks at I.D.G for some time now, and have throughly enjoyed each of them, untill Arun Shourie left me with a certain distaste in my mouth. Arun Shourie and his communal gimmicks are well known and didnt surprise me at there paucity towards their understanding of Islam. What surprised me was the smooth assimilation of his stunt by a crowd whom i expected to show a little light of reason and understanding to a man experiencing a dull hangover of his colonial understanding of History and Culture.
Ali Kirmani
I have been following the talks at I.D.G for some time now, and have throughly enjoyed each of them, untill Arun Shourie left me with a certain distaste in my mouth. Arun Shourie and his communal gimmicks are well known and didnt surprise me at there paucity towards their understanding of Islam. What surprised me was the smooth assimilation of his stunt by a crowd whom i expected to show a little light of reason and understanding to a man experiencing a dull hangover of his colonial understanding of History and Culture.
Ali Kirmani
This is in response to Mr. Ali's enlightening comment.. But I'd like to point out that Mr. Arun Shourie despite being a member of a self proclaimed "hindutva hita rakshak " party , had the audacity to choose the topic "Rethinking Our Rligions".His understanding of Islam (even if acc. to you stinks of remnants of colonialism)includes SHURA, IJTEHAD, IQHTALAF the three basics of democracy as mentioned in the Ha'dith. ILMA AFROZ(VIEWS ARE PERSONAL)
A wolf is found among sheeps only in a sheeps disguise..... Ilma it never took me much to note that your guest did everything except 'Rethinking Our Religions' rather he led his discourse to 'Rethinking Islam'. A few terms like SHURA, IJTEHAD, IQHTALAF could be quoted by anyone, but their application is somthing which requires an understanding of cultural pasts, as much as that of Islam. His lack of knowledge became helplessly visible when I quoated to him from 'The Quran'. If a person like Mr. Shourie becomes the fountainhead of Hindu viewpoint, where does the moderate hindu viewpoint go.
Ali Kirmani
while it's true that arun shourie's views were not at all 'moderate', they weren't endorsed by the IDG as a group, or by any person in particular.
what went wrong at the talk was that there wasn't enough time for a thorough question-answer session, on account of some weather-related mishaps. perhaps it would be better if we changed the format of such talks to a more karan-thapar-esque interrogation-based interaction, yes?
~tanima
@ Tanima
The session with Karan Thapar was no doubt wonderful, and i will look forward to more such sessions. But the old pattern has a charm too. With a person like Karan Thapar it is fun putting all the questions. Yet there are some people whom its great listening too.
Ali Kirmani
I wasnt there for the Karan Thapar talk but from what i heard, it was a q and a session only. This makes sense for Karan Thapar whose show is quite popular, based on a wide range on issues and regularly watched by many of us in college but for those guests whose work might not be that accessible, a talk makes more sense so that they can point out their views first.
Plus a topic of discussion and who is speaking on that particular topic is also a major incentive for people to attend the talk.
Shaunna
I suppose the general conclusion that one can make is that discussions need to be moderated like in case of Shourie.
A
Q&A session would work for somebody like Karan Thapar.
While discussions on 'old pattern' should be retained when there is scope for greater interaction between audience and speaker.
Good thing about Karan Thapar's session was that it happened on a Saturday afternoon making it easy for Day Scholars to attend.IDG should certainly give up some of its 'nocturnal habits'.
Arvind Kejriwal....no doubt is doing a good job...but he un4tunately he is trying 4 something dat will never hapn...& i m sorry to say so....no party in power will ever allow such a thing 2 happen....which makes their job useless...the fact is it is not the salary given by the govt 2 mp's for their job...but the money they make by not performing their duties....i m afraid that if Mr. Arvind tries too much...he will definitely be suppressed...."Mohalla" kind of a thing is possible only in villages...that 2 bcoz...THEY DONT HAVE A JOB....And yes...i kno some pple may disagree with me...but then...this is the fact....
looking forward for comments...& also more discussions by the IDG....
Post a Comment