By Vinod Sushil Soreng
Chennai, August 4, 2020: The Jesuit Philosophy seminary “Satya Nilayam” inaugurated on August 3 its first-ever virtual academic year 2020-21.
Much awaited virtual inauguration of the academic year 2020-21 for M.A. Philosophy, delayed due to Covid-19 pandemic and suffering it inflicted on humanity, took place here at Satya Nilayam, Chennai, also known to many as Department of Philosophy, Loyola College.
Jesuit Father Boniface Panna, the Rector of this national center for formation presided over the Eucharist and invoked the Holy Spirit and its guidance on each, throughout the academic year.
Jesuit Father Lawrence Fernandes, Head of the Department, broke the Word of God and emphasized the importance of God’s intervention into the lives of suffering humanity.
As seekers of truth and lovers of wisdom, students need God’s spirit to realize wisdom and to seek knowledge with much greater depth rather than treating the academia as a mere collection of information, he said.
“Our take and our usage of the knowledge and wisdom is service-oriented, the other-oriented and meaning-oriented. To achieve and realize the knowledge of the highest degree and class, based on truth and wisdom, we need the wisdom of God,” Father Fernandes said.
The followed “Schola Brevis” (Latin for A “brief” lecture at the beginning of the school year) given by a dean or distinguished person, highlighting the theme of the academic year and a framework within which an institution of higher learning could focus its attention on.
This year’s Schola Brevis was “Our Philosophical Response to Subaltern Empowerment in today’s Context” delivered by Father Jebamalai Irudayaraj, the Jesuit provincial of Chennai Jesuit Society, who is a renowned scholar, a philosopher, a social activist, and a progressive thinker.
He divided his talk into two sections. In the first section, he underlined the context of a divided and distorted world, the domination of the darker side, the recent happenings in the context of Covid-19 including the recent happenings in the political circle, the killing of George Floyd in the US and Jayraj and Bennicks in India.
In the second part, he spoke on the philosophical discourse on subaltern empowerment.
“Philosophizing should not be limited to interpreting the world, but our concern should be towards remaking of the world. As far as the subaltern world is concerned, it has been constructed by the rich, powerful and the elite. It needs to be deconstructed by people like us, who are subaltern from the very foundation of our origin and history,” said Father Irudayaraj.
He proposed several philosophical responses to the issues of the subaltern world and urged students to look for more proactive and pragmatic philosophical responses that delve deep into all that the subaltern world goes through.
In today’s world, there is a clear division between rich and the poor, higher and the lower, haves and have nots, the pure and the polluted, class and the mass, the elite and the ordinary, the sacred and the secular, the educated and the uneducated, Father Irudayaraj explained.
The marginalized and the subaltern, by the general understanding of the ordinary public and the state, are those who are unable to have access to their basic material needs; those who have no access to work opportunities; the ones who have no access to better and quality education, welfare schemes or healthcare; and those whose needs are denied, ignored and suppressed.
The subaltern and the marginalized are indigenous people, minorities, poor, refugees, Dalits, tribals, transgenders, oppressed and victimized women and children, and right now it includes the Covid-19 patients because of the kind of social stigma and discrimination that are being attached to them, Father Irudayaraj said.
The impact on the subaltern: If the elite and the rich have an oppressive and aggressive mindset against the subaltern, the impact is monumental. They are socially low, economically in a poor state, politically powerless, culturally subjugated; they become victims of oppression, disparity, discrimination and alienation of different kinds. The oppressor’s taking them for a ride, playing with their self-respect, dignity and humanity. In short, they are the victims of human selfishness, pride, greed, power and sensuality.
Indian social thinkers including ancient and modern-day philosophers have contributed immensely to the uplift of the subaltern people and people in the margins, in their contexts and in their respective times.
“We all stand and applaud their works and salute the social reforms they initiated and gave their lives for. To name a few, like Gautama Buddha, Guru Nanak, Kabeer and Ravidas,” Father Irudayaraj said.
In recent times more renowned thinkers like Jyotiba Phule, Savithri Devi, Periyar in the down South, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar and Kuieli, championed the cause of the Dalits and other subaltern groups. They all belong to the school of creative humanism. All these stalwarts, stand as symbols of the struggle for achieving the subaltern empowerment, he explained.
The subaltern empowerment is the power of the oppressed people moving towards equal status, participation and power of decision making, having access to literacy skills and government jobs and positions; freedom to travel and have a voice of their own, awareness of their identity as groups, and increased socio-political and economic awareness.
Many of the GCs (General Congregations of the Society of Jesus) in the recent past have challenged Jesuits to stand for the subaltern groups and people in the margins of society in their struggle for empowerment.
“One of the major challenges of the budding philosophers today is, to create a platform to critically think, reflect and focus our understanding of the human existence, ethics, worldviews, thoughts, meaning and the values of the subaltern groups, which would enhance a movement towards making just society,” Father Irudayaraj said.
The virtual platform which relayed life, both the Mass of the Holy Spirit and the Scholas Brevis, was created, anchored and championed by Jesuit Father Valerian Mendonca, associate professor, the department of Philosophy, Loyola College, Chennai.