Decolonisation insights from the Swaraj University experiment

Swaraj University was launched in 2010 as India's first university dedicated to strengthening local cultures, local economies and local ecologies. Manish Jain, one of its co-founders, reflects on some of its innovations designed to move away from the conventional colonial curriculum.

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A space to know oneself. A space to grow. A space to experiment. A space to do what YOU are really passionate about. A space to stumble and fall, make mistakes. A space to make friends. A space to understand diversity, community and democracy. A space to question, and be questioned. A space to DO

SOMETHING, for the environment, for society, for one's community, for oneself!  

- Sakhi Nitin-Anita, khoji, age 19

SWARAJ University is designed as a peoples' university for the 21st century. It is not an attempt to reconstruct yet another ivory tower educational institution. Instead, our commitment is to create an environment in which learners can seriously and openly engage with their own talents, visions and values, as well as their local realities, real-world issues and new possibilities. Their learning proposals are linked to long-term choices based on an ecologically and culturally sustainable livelihood, and to strengthening the resilience of their local communities.  Perhaps most importantly, the entire learning process relies on self-discovery, unlearning, co-learning and intrinsic motivation. Touching the inner universe of students is essential for creating choices that have long-term impact and vitality.

Background

Swaraj University was launched in April 2010 with three key considerations, relevant to the discourse on decolonisation, in mind:

1) The industrial-military paradigm of development has unleashed unprecedented ecological damage to the planet while creating a great material and intellectual dependency on fossil fuels. Climate change and loss of biodiversity are major conditions affecting our world today, causing countless catastrophic consequences. In addition, there are deep concerns about peak oil, toxic industrial pollution, more waste in the streets and around our homes, the rapid destruction of forested areas for mining and other industries, genetically modified and toxic food systems, and a general public insensitivity to our natural environments. Unfortunately, solutions rooted in community contexts and grassroots wisdom are few and far between across India.  There is a need to re-link understanding of the ecological crisis and emerging solutions with a deeper cultural and spiritual crisis.

2) The global economy is creating many economic disruptions and uncertainties in the lives of youth and local communities. There is a tremendous amount of pressure to earn fast money as both real costs of living as well as consumer desires/products escalate. Many young people are disconnected from their traditional occupations and often migrate to the cities, where they are under- or unemployed.  Educated youth are fed as slaves into the corporations and factories. There exists a great number of youth without opportunities to pursue right livelihood. The current higher education system does not equip youth with the vision, values and skills to start their own ventures that specifically address needs and realities in their local communities.  Most forms of entrepreneurship that are being initiated today in India do not take the impact on people and planet into account. There is a need to re-situate economics and entrepreneurship within the larger framework of the gift culture and localisation.

3) There is also a major crisis within the current schooling and university system, which is centred on competition, certificate-itis, fragmented knowledge, commodification and consumer culture.  The higher education system focuses on rote memorisation (of pass-books and test papers) and stifles creativity, self-reflection, collaboration, self-initiative and lifelong learning. It does not recognise diverse learning styles or epistemologies. It remains an ivory tower institution which is disconnected from the needs, knowledge, languages and imagination of local communities. Oftentimes, students in the modern urban universities learn to despise their own communities and look down upon them. There is a need to give students an opportunity to be involved in researching and designing their own learning programmes, based on their curiosity, community needs and passion.  There is also a need to validate a wide range of 'teachers' in local communities who may not have PhDs but are connected to various kinds of diverse living knowledge systems.  Experiential learning and traditional wisdom need to be re-valued in relation to textual forms of knowledge.

Reva Dandage, co-founder of this university, states, 'Swaraj University is India's first university dedicated to strengthening our local cultures, local economies and local ecologies. Ecological sustainability, social justice and holistic, healthy lifestyles are the core principles of our vision. Within this larger context, we are keen to support young people in putting their dreams into action and developing eco-friendly enterprises that make a difference for their communities.'

Swaraj University grew out of the efforts of Shikshantar (The Peoples' Institute for Rethinking Education and Development) and many of its partners. Shikshantar, a non-profit peoples' movement, was founded  years ago to challenge the monopoly of the culture of schooling and its institutions of thought control. Shikshantar started with the question of the relevance of Gandhi's call for swaraj (rule over the self) in our lives today. Shikshantar is based in Udaipur and is committed to creating spaces for individuals and organisations to engage in dialogue to find alternatives to industrial, institutionalised models of education, development and progress. Shikshantar also hosts the Swapathgami network, a trans-local network of people who have walked out of schools, universities and jobs to create new possibilities in their own lives and communities.  Several of these people are part of Swaraj University as mentors and advisers.

Unique features of the programme

Taking inspiration from India's rich guru-shishya tradition, Mahatma Gandhi's nai taleem, Rabindranath Tagore's Shantiniketan and Rancho's 3 idiots, Swaraj University started in April 2010 as a radical nurturing space for young people (ages 16-30) to self-design their own learning process to become community leaders and green entrepreneurs.  In Swaraj University, the learners are called khojis (seekers or explorers). Re-integration of the hands, heart, head and home is at the centre of the pedagogical process. There are several unique features of Swaraj University worth mentioning:

 Each learner gets the opportunity to develop his or her own personalised learning programme based on his or her own dreams and social visions. It seeks to restore freedom and responsibility to each student to decide what they want to learn, how they want to learn and from whom they want to learn.  Many experiments of unlearning are designed to shake up some of the schooled assumptions that many of the learners come burdened with.

 Learners learn to live in a dynamic learning community, in which they are continuously experimenting with processes of deep democracy, governance and decision-making.  They are invited to take an active role in community life and engage in everyday questions related to their personal and collective choices of food, waste, housing, energy, communication, healing/medicine, hygiene, transport, etc.  This has created a lot of spontaneous opportunities for 'here-and-now' learning, particularly around group dynamics.

 Different kinds of 'faculty' (including those without formal education or PhDs) who come from diverse knowledge traditions and cosmologies are recognised and sought after.  The principle of mutuality is encouraged in the learning process where the learners select their gurus and vice versa. The mantra of 'the entire world is our classroom' is at the centre. The learners are also encouraged to consciously co-learn with each other.  In addition to informal exchanges, they organise and offer seminars and workshops for each other.

 Various mechanisms including a Feedback Council, Mitra Network, Phone-a-Friend Group, Listserv and workshops have been created to cater to the emotional space of the learner. Youth face a lot of challenges from family, peer group, girlfriends/boyfriends as well as ups and downs in their learning process.  They also have lots of issues with anger, low self-esteem, broken family relationships, etc.  Strong efforts have been made to create a safe space where the learners can open up and emotionally heal themselves.

 The entire university is designed to function in the spirit of the gift culture. There is a strong commitment to decommodify knowledge and learning. Students are invited to contribute whatever they can to the costs of running the programme. Faculty and resource persons also volunteer their time with the learners. Several experiments and practices such as CopyLeft have been initiated to understand the gift culture.

 It is important to note that Swaraj University does not give out any examinations, degrees or certificates. It is not accredited by the University Grants Committee or any foreign body. It is a peoples' university, accredited by different leading thinker-doers, by community and local organisations and by the practical accomplishments of the students.

According to co-founder Reva Dandage, 'We want students to have real skills and knowledge to take up real projects in their communities - not just hollow pieces of paper. Over the course of two years, each khoji develops their own portfolio of practical experiences, self-reflection and references. At the end of two years, we believe that they will each have the full confidence and vision to start their own green enterprise.' 

In collaboration with Shikshantar's 'Healing Ourselves from the Diploma Disease' campaign, more than 100 organisations have been identified which are willing to hire and promote students without any formal degree on the basis of their experiences, portfolios and interviews. Swaraj University is also connected with other innovative universities around the world including Gaia University, Peer-to-Peer University and IGNOU which provide access to materials, online courses and students. Several khojis have participated in short seminars and workshops held at Deer Park Institute for the Study of Indian Classical Wisdom Traditions.

Learner profiles

There are currently 18 khojis  enrolled in the first cohort. Within the first batch, there is a strong diversity - of age, language, religion, economic background, even ideologies and beliefs. The khojis have come from Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Karnataka, from urban and rural settings.  There is no prior degree or diploma required to join Swaraj University. The main criteria for selection are an openness to self-initiative and a deeper commitment to do something good for society and the environment.  The youngest of the group is 17 years old and the oldest 30 years old. Two-thirds have received partial or full scholarships. Says co-founder Nitin Paranjape, 'We believe that everyone can learn and do something special in the world, despite their academic background. They just need a chance to identify their talents, find their inner passions and be in a community of support. The mainstream education system creates a lot of failures. We believe that everyone can be a winner and find success and deeper meaning in life.'

Some khojis and their backgrounds

Anant Singh, an 18-year-old boy from Mysore who has finished 12th grade, plans on creating a dent in the environmental damage done in cities by designing and changing urban homes to eco-homes that do rooftop farming, use low-water toilets and are run on solar energy.  His big dream is to lead an ecologically positive lifestyle in a rural-based self-sustaining community. He keeps exploring how he can live a 'sensible' life, one that is in tune with nature, not consumerist and waste-generating. He says, 'The networks and connections that I have received from the like-minded community at Swaraj University are invaluable and have opened many doors.'

Harshita Wadhya, a young woman from the historic city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh state, graduated from Delhi University but decided not to pursue further education within the formal system and is now exploring her interest in alternative healing. Her focus is on energy work/pranic healing, love and forgiveness and its role in healing, and past-life regression. She is also keen to live sustainably, causing least damage to life and the environment around her. Dancing is also one of her passions. She is trying to live a life with freedom and courage and believes in making her own mistakes and learning from them. She says, 'After joining Swaraj University, I have started believing in my dreams and values again and have regained my faith in humanity. I really have enjoyed spending time with my mentor.'

Gyan Shahane, a 20-year-old from Nashik in Maharashtra state, is interested in filmmaking, particularly in the drama/fiction category. He wants to use this powerful medium to bring about positive change in people and the society at large. He decided to leave school after 8th grade as he was fed up with the poor education he was receiving in government schools. His other interests are writing, reading, theatre and photography. He says, 'The love and acceptance I got after joining Swaraj University gives me the strength and courage to do what I want to do and walk on the path I have chosen for myself.'

Sakhi Nitin-Anita is a 19-year-old girl from Nashik. This young lady took a bold step to walk out of the school system from classes 7-10 to explore the world around her rather than go to school and rote learn for exams. In those three years she did various things like writing, web-designing, filmmaking, travelling the world and volunteering with people taking innovative steps to change society. She went on to become the Nashik topper in the class 12 board exams. She has joined Swaraj University and is exploring her passions for art, sustainable design, photography, child psychology and writing. She has done a mentorship working with women and teenagers on domestic violence issues. She says, 'Swaraj University has encouraged me to take the initiative and be more responsible for my own learning. It has given me the opportunity to interact with and live in a community with people from different socio-economic backgrounds. This has greatly enriched my perspective on life.'

According to Reva Dandage, 'The diversity of the first cohort has made for intense discussions and challenging situations at times. But, over the year, we have also witnessed the formation of strong bonds of friendship and trust amongst the group that transcend the barriers of age, class, caste and language.'

The structure and process

The course is conducted in Hindi, while keeping in mind each individual's need for expression in his/her native language.  The programme believes in learning by doing and learning by making mistakes. The programme is divided into four Khoji Meets (one month every quarter during the first year) at the university's campus, three Learning Journeys and three Mentorship Periods of two months anywhere in the country. The khojis spend time in the Khoji Meets learning about and practising self-designed learning, self-reflection, teamwork, planning and deepening their perspective. Through exercises and sessions organised by the facilitators, khojis identify their individual learning goals, design plans to achieve them, identify skills that need to be built, redefine their dreams and bigger goals and chart out their mentorship periods. During the Khoji Meets, khojis also hone their documentation, presentation and media skills, design their portfolios and give and take feedback for their learning and growth.

As part of the efforts of perspective-building and gaining a deeper understanding of concepts related to the idea of swaraj, the khojis watch movies; research topics and organise seminars for each other; visit and learn from nearby villages; share articles, books and other resources; do hands-on projects such as building compost toilets and cooking solar food; interact with international students from other countries; and invite resource persons to share their perspectives.

In keeping with the vision of swaraj, the campus has been set up at an ideal location in the lap of nature at Tapovan Ashram, an organic farm and nursery 30 km. away from Udaipur city, located amidst the Aravali hills. Reclaiming our physical spaces and taking responsibility for their maintenance and growth is an essential part of the programme. There are no servants or peons at Swaraj University. According to Reva Dandage, 'The mainstream education institutions focus exclusively on their curriculum to the exclusion of the learners' relationship with their environment - they do not have any responsibility and relationship with the food they eat, the energy they consume or the waste they generate.' Hence, all the khojis and faculty on campus take part in the design and development of community spaces like the kitchen, library, dorms, outdoor classrooms and organic farm, and shoulder community responsibilities like cooking, cleaning and thinking of what we purchase/consume and how it impacts our environment. 'Life on the campus has been exciting, challenging the comfort zones of some and confronting the deep personal issues of others, while exploring ways of living harmoniously with each other and with nature,' says Sakhi, one of the khojis from Nashik.

The 'faculty'

During the mentorship period, the khojis learn skills and practical wisdom from faculty-mentors in fields of their choice. Swaraj University has developed a wide pool of mentors all over India, with experience and expertise in fields varying from organic farming to naturopathy and healing, community radio to filmmaking, women's rights to working with street children, zero-waste crafts to healthy cooking, sustainable design to appropriate renewable technologies. Khojis also do short internships with several local artisans in Udaipur such as potters, puppeteers, bamboo craftsmen, herbal healers and farmers. Swaraj University has enlisted over 50 ustaad-mentors as part of our faculty and the list is growing.  In addition to this, khojis are encouraged to also look for additional mentors in their local regions.

Some of our mentors include:

Dhirendra and Smita are rightly known as the Two Thoreaus of Sakwa, Gujarat. They live a simple and self-sustainable life on two acres of land on the banks of the Narmada River in Gujarat. They were both lecturers in Ahmedabad but decided to opt for a simple life 20 years ago. Both their children, now around 20-25 years old, have never been to school and are working with renewable energy technology. They have developed several organic and herbal products which they grow, process and sell.

Bharat Shah, from Baroda, is an allopathic doctor who left his thriving career when he realised the ills of modern pharmaceutical medicine to run a naturopathy hospital in Baroda. He is in charge of the Vinoba Naturopathy centre in Baroda started in the name/by the disciple of Gandhiji Vinoba based on his ideas on health and health care.

Praveen Pagare, a self-taught documentary filmmaker, has worked with different social movements throughout his 10-year career, from the Narmada Bachav Andolan to Ekta Parishad. He has worked passionately with Abhivyakti Media for Development, an NGO in Nashik, for many years, making documentaries on various social issues.

Nandita Dinesh is a theatre artist and director who has been working intensely on developing new forms of community media. She travels the world, from Mexico to Afghanistan to Northeast India, trying to bring people in places of conflict and unrest together. Her expertise is in participatory and experiential theatre with local communities. Currently, she has developed a platform for young artists in Pune called 'Mezza'.

Deepak Suchde is not your typical farmer. The first thing that strikes you when you meet him is the passion for his work and for his life. When he starts talking about natueco-farming you know instantly that here is a person whose knowledge is insurmountable as you are drawn into the world of soil, plants, and the eco-system. He will tell you how to make ends meet farming in a piece of land as small as 10 gunthas (quarter of an acre) and live healthily and in harmony with nature. He is busy spreading the call to enrich the degraded soil made worse by use of unlimited chemicals and greed so that we can claim our right to organic living. He lives on his farm near Harda in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

Manoj Prajapat, a self-taught chef and community entrepreneur from Udaipur who left school after class 10, runs a health food business 'Jasso Ann Vasso Mann' - you are what you eat. He does various experiments in cooking with zero oil, solar technology and local grains. He runs a slow food caf‚ in Udaipur.

Some challenges and key lessons

So far the first year of Swaraj University has initiated many exciting innovations in the realm of higher education. Several khojis have already received job offers after their first year. Many are in the process of setting up their own community enterprises. Most importantly, we have seen deep growth and transformative changes in the khojis themselves. 

There are several interesting challenges and key lessons from the first year worth noting which are relevant to the discourse on decolonisation:

It is important to have more conscious spaces for intercultural dialogue between youth from metros, urban/semi-urban areas and rural areas. Their radically different value systems, experiences, epistemologies, etc. can either provide rich fodder for deep dialogue or be very divisive if not attended to.  Within the context of decolonisation, it is important that all three groups realise that they have much to learn from each other to understand the challenges of our times.  We are exploring ways to create more vibrant spaces for intercultural dialogue.

The domain of emotional support, motivation and well-being for youth is even more critical than we had imagined. Many have suffered much humiliation, alienation and psychological damage from the formal education system. The breakdown of family structures and community spaces has created additional emotional distress. Furthermore, the decolonising/unlearning process is a very emotionally charged one as many belief systems are called into question. Negotiating an alternative path, in the sense of putting one's values into practice in the current state of the world, is quite difficult. We have seen powerful changes taking place in the khojis once they feel accepted, healed and heard. We are exploring how to create more mechanisms for continuous emotional well-being, risk-taking and care.

We have seen a tremendous influence of the popular media metro culture on youth. Discussions on film stars, cricketers, fashion, technology products, etc. dominate informal peer group spaces. Formal academic spaces, in fact, have very little influence on the daily conversations between youth. Youth who try to raise and discuss other subjects are often ostracised from their peer group. We are exploring how to engage with this Bollywood media culture in more critical and creative ways.

In the pedagogy of self-designed learning, we are continually playing with the inherited category of 'academic rigour' as we deal with diverse knowledge systems, learning styles, learning paces and levels of comfort with textual expression - of both faculty and students.  We have been open to multiple ways, languages and media of expressing one's learning and understanding. Along the way, we have also had to unlearn some of our academic biases about the centrality of text. In addition, we have tried to develop different tools for self, peer and faculty assessment in order to ensure that khojis get different kinds of feedback in their learning journeys.  We continue to explore the right balance of how much of the programme should be structured by us and how much should be self-designed by the khojis, and how to ensure that intellectual depth and rigour are achieved.

There has been quite a positive response to the idea of Swaraj University and a call for tailoring it to meet many different environments, contexts and needs. For example, there has been an invitation to set up a Swaraj University campus in the central jail.  There has also been interest in having an evening programme for those who are working and unable to attend the programme full-time. There is interest in the creation of a summer leadership programme for youth during their vacations. There is an interest in a village Swaraj University. We are exploring the essence that must remain in any Swaraj University programme and what must be contextualised in different settings in order to ensure relevance and ownership.

There are many crises facing the modern university structure in the 21st century. Swaraj University is a small and humble attempt to take conversations about decolonisation beyond curriculum reform into the domain of re-inventing and re-imagining the very structure, roles, values, and economics that underlie the university. It seeks to restore the power and responsibility of the learner, teacher and local communities as the starting point for educational transformation. Much hard work and many more such efforts are required to realise the larger vision of intellectual swaraj but at least a step has been taken and people can again dare to dream beyond the conventional university model.

Manish Jain is co-founder of Swaraj University (www.swarajuniversity.org) and has served as Coordinator-Co-Founder of Shikshantar: The Peoples' Institute for Rethinking Education and Development based in Udaipur, India. The above is the text of his presentation at the International Conference on 'Decolonising Our Universities' held in Penang, Malaysia, in June 2011.

Some highlights of the Swaraj University experience, in the khojis' own words 'IT has been an exciting journey of discovery and experimentation for all of us. We have learnt through various experiences such as visiting a prison, organising a fair in the neighbouring village, setting up a food stall made from local grains in a mela, silent trekking in the mountains, working with local farmers and artisans like potters, puppeteers, etc., interviewing tribal nomads who walk miles with their goats, interacting with youth from foreign countries, tracing the pugmarks of a leopard, visiting the dump site and attending international conferences amongst many others.' 'One of the highlights of the year was when we participated in an amazing week-long, hands-on, service learning, community-building exercise called the Oasis Game in Shivaji Nagar basti in Udaipur that was conducted by our friend Edgard from Brazil. It pushed our thinking and learning in various dimensions such as learning the skills of working within a community, knowing how to work for our dreams by making it fun and implementing tools for social dialogue. For the first time we learned to see the beauty, assets and power within so-called poor or backward communities. For many of us, it ignited a new vision and spirit of sewa.' 'Travelling is a great way to learn. We lay a lot of stress on Learning Journeys in the first year. It creates the magic of  bonding us all together, energising us with fresh new ideas, inspiring us with new people, social entrepreneurship experiments and activist movement, widening our worldviews, giving us the opportunity to interact with other alternative communities and a chance to try our hand at doing things that we always dreamt of.  Last year, we went to Pune and Ahmedabad.' 'We did a very unique and inspiring Cycle Yatra, an unlearning journey into villages without money, cell phones, food or any other amenities.  During the Cycle Yatra, we pushed our own physical and comfort limits, we were questioned on our relationship with money and the broader question of dependency, thus challenging our mindsets on issues of "progress", "security" and "development"!' 'It has been very exciting and inspiring to see the various personal experiments undertaken by fellow khojis  - personal experiments on silence, free cycling, self-healing, physical labour, the effects of limiting Internet or mobile phone use etc. are all beautiful attempts to keep oneself alive and aware in this age of apathy and high-speed living.'

*Third World Resurgence No. 266/267, October/November 2012, pp 49-53