I discovered, this weekend, after presenting at the Left Forum, that there are different issues at stake in an activist presentation than in an academic one. The responsibilities are different, and much more collective in nature. It becomes even more complicated when one is trying to represent the social movements in diaspora. In other words, solidarity work has its own complexities. There is a huge responsibility of representation, and the political fallouts of that might be much more severe than an academic presentation, where the stakes are measured much more in terms of an individual scholars' responsibility towards the issues he/she studies. Also, after an activist presentation, the audience is much more prone to ask questions like “what can I do to help” and one has to have “positive” answers without being reductionist.
Now, some stuff I heard in Left Forum:
The White Woman in Front of the Elevator: In which panel are you presenting?
Me: Contemporary Leftist Movements in India.
The Woman: Is there one?
Me: There are many.
The Woman: Oh really? Nice. Good for you that you're presenting!
I smile, the elevator comes in, we both stop conversing.
From Gautam Navlakha's presentation:
In India, we have every variety of left. One can choose from many varieties of left movements, see where one fits me. As an Indian, this is something that makes me extremely proud!
This is a rough paraphrase of what he said, and I have to kind of agree:))))
No comments:
Post a Comment