Gurnam New Song Latest

Acts of Knowing

This provocative book's starting point is a deep and profound concern about the commodification of knowledge within the contemporary university. Acts of Knowing aims to provide readers with a means of understanding the issues from the perspective of Critical Pedagogy; an educational philosophy which believes that 'knowing' must be freed from the constraints of the financial and managerialist logics which dominate the contemporary university. Critical Pedagogy is important for three key reasons: it conceptualises pedagogy as a process of engagement between the teacher and taught; secondly that that engagement is based on an underlying humanistic view about human worth and value; and thirdly that the 'knowing' which can come out of this engagement needs to be understood essentially as exchange between people, rather than a financial exchange. Cowden and Singh argue that the conception of education as simply a means for securing economic returns for the individual and for the society's positioning in a global marketplace, represents a fundamentally impoverished conception of education, which impoverishes not just individuals, but society as a whole.

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Forgotten Blood

The social conditions in Punjab at the outbreak of World War I in 1914 were rapidly improving and the locals were happy about the economic benefits that their farmers were reaping. When the British government sought manpower to fight their war against Germany in France Indians made themselves readily available. Within six weeks of the war breaking out, two divisions from Punjab were sent to France under the command of the British. There they fought bravely and stopped the German advance in France. After serving about 18 months in France, most of the forces were deployed in other spheres of war in the Eastern Mediterranean. Kamaljit Sood’s play ‘Forgotten Blood’ recounts the story of the war and the subsequent treatment of the Indians in India leading to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.