Mainstream Weekly

Alert students amid spineless vice-chancellors | Avijit Pathak

Avijit Pathak — 2023-02-17T19:27:11Z

I have no hesitation in saying that the way the Government of India has responded to the BBC documentary — India: The Modi Question — is pathetic. It reveals the essential paradox of all ‘powerful' regimes. Yes, this sort of power and associated cult of narcissism or seeds of authoritarianism breed chronic psychic anxiety and existential insecurity — say, the fear of critical interrogation by those who dare to differ and dissent.
No wonder, a documentary on the 2002 Gujarat riots so (…)

- 2023

The Pathology of Electoral Politics | Avijit Pathak

Avijit Pathak — 2022-03-18T17:32:52Z

I am not a professional politician; nor am I a political philosopher. Yet, as a learner filled with the spirit of studentship, I believe that we need to sharpen the ethos of political education. Is it possible to retain a democratic culture without political education—the education that enables us to see through the discourse of power, think intelligently and critically, and exist as alert/active/reflexive agents of our collective destiny? I know there are many who would not find any meaning (…)

- 2022

Towards a Creative Merger with Rural Children: A Pedagogic Experiment | Avijit Pathak

Avijit Pathak — 2022-03-11T14:02:59Z

As a teacher, I have engaged primarily with university students. Yet, I have always felt that my participation in what we regard as ‘higher education' should not be separated from school education. I can't see myself as just a university intellectual—burdened with a heavy baggage of ‘knowledge' and ‘research', and separated from children, or the way they grow up as learners in families and schools. There are three reasons for my intense urge to engage with young children. First, I believe (…)

- 2022

The Irresistible Bell Hooks: A Tribute | Avijit Pathak

Avijit Pathak — 2021-12-28T19:08:31Z

To live fully we would need to let go of our fear of dying. That fear can be addressed by the love of living. bell hooks
Even though death is normal and inevitable, it is not easy for me to acknowledge that bell hooks is no more amongst us. I know that professional academicians and scholars are trained to restrain their emotions, and even when a colleague dies, they merely issue formal condolence messages, and write yet another scholarly paper on the academic achievements of their late (…)

- 2022

The Pathology of Standardized ‘Objective” Tests | Avijit Pathak

Avijit Pathak — 2021-11-05T12:13:04Z

It seems our academic bureaucrats and policymakers have forgotten the basic truth about the experience of learning and unlearning—wonder and awakening, or critical thinking and creative imagination. Or is it that they think that there is nothing beyond hard/technical/'objective' facts, and every question that confronts a learner ought to have only one ‘correct' answer? What else do you and I notice in the chronic obsession with the MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions) pattern of tests and exams (…)

- 2021

A Plea for Liberal Education | Avijit Pathak

Avijit Pathak — 2021-09-03T14:15:57Z

by Avijit Pathak
To begin with, let me make it clear. What I am going to write is not something bookish—yet another soulless academic exercise. Instead, my words emanate from the authenticity of my experience: the entire process of self-churning that I pass through as a learner, a teacher or a wanderer. Yes, I know that education, as social anthropologists are fond of saying, is a process of transmission of the entire social heritage— its traditions, symbols and knowledges— from one (…)

- 2021

The Earthly Fragrance of Social Science | Avijit Pathak

Avijit Pathak — 2021-08-13T20:11:02Z

BOOK REVIEW
by Avijit Pathak
__0__ Social Scientist in South Asia:
Personal Narratives, Social Forces and Negotiations
Achla Pritam Tandon, Gopi Devdutt Tripathy and Rashi Bhargava (eds.)
Routledge India
2021 - 274 Pages
ISBN 9781032045924
more information
Available on Taylor & Francis eBooks
__0__
As a humble student, I have never felt comfortable with what I regard as soulless academic enterprise. And I loathe the fetish of ‘objectivity'—the ‘science' that seeks (…)

- 2021

NEP: Fancy Ideals or Real Concerns? | Avijit Pathak

Avijit Pathak — 2020-08-28T20:18:17Z

[This article is part of New Education Policy 2020 Special Focus Issue]
This article is not a detailed analysis of the National Education Policy (NEP 2020): its politico-economic and ideological implications, or the debates it has already generated regarding the possibility of increasing privatization and commodification of higher education. Instead, in this article, I will make an attempt to reflect—and that too through the eyes of a teacher—on some of the key ideals of education and (…)

- 2020

Trivialisation of death: With dignity gone, Covid has reduced it to a statistical abstraction | Avijit Pathak

Avijit Pathak — 2020-07-11T13:02:26Z

Death, thy servant, is at my door. He has crossed the unknown sea and brought thy call to my home. — Rabindranath Tagore
Is it that in the age of the Covid, death has lost its meaning, dignity and poetic wonder? As the virus spreads, hospitals are burdened with infected patients and crematoriums become unmanageable, we engage with death through numbers. Death becomes statistical abstraction: faceless, anonymous and devoid of a meaning. As fearful beings, we have already stigmatised the (…)

- 2020

The Pandemic and the Absurdity of ‘Online Teaching'

Avijit Pathak — 2020-05-23T19:46:07Z

What saddens me is that as teachers and educationists we have failed miserably at this crucial juncture when the coronavirus has shattered the ‘taken-for-granted' world, and caused widespread psychic anxiety and existential uncertainty. Instead of rethinking the meaning and purpose of education at this puzzling moment, we seem to be concerned only with the technical question: how to use the appropriate apps for ‘online teaching', and conquer the barriers of ‘social distancing'. It is like (…)

- 2020