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159. The Impossible Indian (with Faisal Devji and Vaibhav Vats)
Why Gandhi Endures
Speakers
In this conversation with Vaibhav Vats, Dr. Faisal Devji, Professor of Indian History at St.Anthony’s College, University of Oxford, provides a glimpse into the range and spectrum of his research and writing – touching on history of Indian diaspora and identity drawn from personal history, enquiring into Gandhi and decoding his continually evolving understanding of sacrifice, violence and non-violence through the lens of the Mahabharata, understanding the dynamics of personalities like Jinnah, Ambedkar and Nehru, while drawing parallels with the current dispensation and communal, political climes.
The essence of non-violent protest endures due to their moral emphasis that overrides any political appeal which has ensured Gandhi stays put in our collective imagination.
Speakers
Faisal Devji
Dr. Faisal Devji has held faculty positions at the New School in New York, Yale University and the University of Chicago, from where he also received his PhD in Intellectual History. Devji was Junior Fellow at the Society of Fellows, Harvard University, and Head of Graduate Studies at the Institute of Ismaili Studies in London, from where he directed post-graduate courses in the Near East and Central Asia.
He is a Fellow at New York University’s Institute of Public Knowledge and Yves Otramane Chair at the Graduate Institute in Geneva.
He is interested in Indian political thought as well as that of modern Islam. Devji’s broader concerns have to do with ethics and violence in a globalized world.
Vaibhav Vats
Vaibhav Vats is an independent writer and journalist. His work has appeared in the New York Times and Al Jazeera, among other publications. He is working on a book on Hindu nationalism and the making of India’s Second Republic.
